WORLDS 2017 Day 2 – Lee Chong Wei’s Worlds woes

Brice Leverdez played out of skin, recovering from losing the second game by review, to put out one of the tournament favourites Lee Chong Wei.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Badmintonphoto.

A creative and attacking Brice Leverdez (pictured left) repeated his 2016 Denmark Open feat of beating Lee Chong Wei, in what cannot be ruled out as the Malaysian’s last attempt at the title.

A tight first game saw loose play cost the Malaysian, but after a late comeback from 13-18 down in the second, he saved two match points, the second on a challenge to force the deciding rubber.

In the third game, Lee seemed to be on cruise control, but as the sharp end approached, the Malaysian tightened up and Leverdez cantered to victory.

The Frenchman spoke to the host broadcaster after to say, “I can play with no stress, I know it’s Lee Chong Wei so I’m a big-time underdog. Today I felt like Just play your game, joke on court with yourself and it will be fine, and it happened!”

The result opens up the bottom half of the draw with Chen Long and Viktor Axelsen favourites after progressing without much trouble.

Irish sibling pair Sam and Chloe Magee (pictured right) also disposed of seeded opposition as they beat Watanabe / Higashino in three games to continue their run in Glasgow.

They will have to step up their game to repeat the feat as they set up a round 3 fixture against third-seeded Indonesians and Olympic champions Tontowi Ahmad / Liliyana Natsir.

In a nightmare first round, China’s Tian Houwei (pictured below) faced Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in a hard fought match.

The momentum swinging back and forth throughout, but Vittinghus appeared to lose concentration after an audacious drop shot error, and then proceeded to lose 9 straight points and the game.

Tian will undoubtedly have an easier time in the next round against Russia’s Vladimir Malkov, as will Viktor Axelsen, who passed a stern test from Japan’s Takuma Ueda and progresses to face Finn Eeto Heino.

China’s women’s singles had a successful day as Chen Yufei, Sun Yu and Chen Xiaoxin all progressed in straight games.

Only Chen Xiaoxin was pushed at all in the matches as Michelle Li narrowly missed out 25-27 on a chance to force a deciding rubber.

Both Chen Yufei and Chen Xiaoxin will have tough next rounds, as they face top seed Akane Yamaguchi and eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon respectively.  Both stars eased through their first matches

The full results for the day can be found here.