CHINA OPEN 2010 – Du stings, Jan survives

Du Pengyu (photo) was one of the heroes of the day in Shanghai for the first day of competition in the main draw of the Li-Ning China Open 2010 as he stunned fourth seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand after a marathon match

Raphael Sachetat. Photos (live): Badmintonphoto

The Chinese, one of the 8 left in the last 16 – played above par to beat the Thai wonder who had beaten Lee Chong Wei a fortnight ago in the team event of the Asian Games. It wasn’t the only upset as Mark Zwiebler from Germany also suffered an early exit in the hands of an unknown player – Zhang Sheng, who had to go through the qualifying stage.

For Jan O Jorgensen (photo) – the last man standing for Denmark in the men’s singles event-, it could have also been a bad day but his experience prevailed in his encounter against Chinese youngster Kai Wen. The Denmark Open Champion – who happens to be last year’s runner up after beating Lee Chong Wei here in Shanghai – won in three games 21-9, 9-21, 21-17. He is now up against Hong Kong’s Chan Yan Kit, who had very little trouble against Scotland’s Casey.

Korea’s Lee Hyun Il overcame the first hurdle in the seat of the top seed as he beat India’s Gurusai Datt in three games. He will now have to beat a lot of Chinese if he wants a rematch of the most controversial final of the modern ages against Lin Dan.

No major upset in the woman’s singles – a little surprise to see Petya Nedelcheva bow 9-21 and 9-21 to China’s Zhou Hui, but Thursday’s main match to watch will be Ratchanok Intanon against former World Champion Lu Lan.

The men’s doubles provided with two interesting matches. Mixed pair or Blair and Limpele beat Rasmussen and Conrad-Petersen 21-15, 21-12 while former World Champions Gunawan and Bach didn’t take a game from the local favourites Cai and Fu.

All results HERE