Lin Dan stunned, Saina sails in China Open

Shanghai : Badminton legend Lin Dan saved seven match points before being dumped out of the first round of his home China Open on Wednesday, stunned by Indonesia’s world No. 17 Jonatan Christie.

The 21-19 21-16 defeat will ramp up speculation that the 34-year-old Lin, widely regarded as the best badminton player of all time, may soon call it quits as he approaches the end of his brilliant career. Seeded third, Lin, a five-time China Open champion, was guilty of a catalogue of errors in going down to Christie in 42 minutes in a shock upset in the Chinese city of Fuzhou.

The 20-year-old Christie plays Hong Kong’s Angus Ng in the second round.

 India’s Saina Nehwal sailed into the women’s singles second round with a straight-game win over USA’s Beiwan Zhang on Wednesday.

Saina, who recently won the National Championships beating compatriot PV Sindhu in the final, hardly broke a sweat and needed exactly 30 minutes to tame Zhang 21-12, 21-13 in her tournament opener.

In fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, who beat China’s Xiaoxin Chen 21-12, 21-14, Saina has drawn a tough opponent in the next round.

The Indian trails the Japanese one to three in head-to- head record with their three previous results going in Yamaguchi’s favour.

However, it was curtains for men’s singles shuttler Sourabh Verma, who lost in the first round to France’s Brice Leverdez 14-21, 21-15, 11-21. The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also failed to cross the opening hurdle, losing to Chinese pair of Cheng Liu and Nan Zhang 13-21, 13-21.

Second seed PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy will open their campaigns in their respective events later.

While Sindhu will face Sayaka Sato of Japan in the women’s singles, Prannoy will take on Keun Dong Lee of Korea in his opening men’s singles encounter.

The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankiredddy and Ashwini Ponappa will also open their campaign against Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen.