VICTOR Korea Open 2010 - Tao-Zhang pull off major upset
News 3:35 PM
Korea’s Olympic champions Lee Yong Dae-Lee Hyo Jung were the biggest casualty as Lee Chong Wei and Peter Gade won their opening matches with relative ease at the VICTOR Korea Open 2010 Super Series in Seoul on Wednesday.
In the women’s singles, Denmark’s Tine Rasmussen and Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi also got off to winning starts albeit in contrasting fashion at the Olympic Fencing Stadium.
Chong Wei began his quest to win his first title of the year when he beat England’s Andrew Smith 21-14, 21-14 in convincing fashion to set up a match against Germany Marc Zwiebler in the second round.
The German, incidentally, took the same amount of time as Chong Wei, 24 minutes, to beat Poland’s Przemyslaw Wacha 21-11, 21-16.
Chong Wei continued from where he left off last year when he won the World Super Series Masters Finals and showed that he has not lost any of the accuracy and aggression that won him the US$40,000 cheque.
The Malaysian also showed great anticipation to read Smith’s game to come away with a comfortable win.
Chong Wei will be joined by teammate Kuan Beng Hong who beat Korea’s Jang Young Soo 25-23, 18-21, 21-16 to set-up a second round showdown with another Korean Park Sung Hwan, the No 5 seed.
Gade, the defending champion, stopped Malaysia’s Chong Wei Feng 21-19, 21-17 and will play England’s Rajiv Ouseph.
In the absence of world and Olympic champion Lin Dan, China’s challenge was left in the hands of Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai. The duo did not disappoint and beat Chinese Taipei’s Hsueh Hsuan Yi (21-8, 21-10) and Korea’s Kim Sa Rang (15-21, 21-13, 21-8) respectively. 
But the biggest upset came in the mixed doubles when home favourites Yong Dae-Hyo Jung were shown the exit by China’s Tao Jiaming-Zhang Yawen 21-13, 21-16 to leave the Koreans with the realistic hope of winning only the men’s doubles title.
In the women’s singles, Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi, the No 2 seed, was given a torrid time by Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo but prevailed to secure a 10-21, 21-10, 21-11 in 51 minutes to progress to the next stage. Zhou Mi will play Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the second round.
Tine also started brightly with a commanding performance to subdue Japan’s Sayaka Sato 21-14, 21-16 and will next play Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun, a surprise winner of Japan’s Eriko Hirose.
The top two seeds in the men’s doubles did not see action on Wednesday but Lee Yong Dae-Jung Jae Sung and Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen will both face Korean opposition in the second round.
However, China’s Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng signaled their intentions with a powerful display of attacking badminton to beat Korea’s Cho Gun Woo-Kwon Yi Goo 21-17, 21-11 in their opening match.
Indonesia’s Alvent Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan, playing as independents, also made it through to the second round when they beat Japan’s Kenichi Hayakawa-Kenta Kazuno in straight games.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 3:35 PM.
Filed under
