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Olympic Champion Ji Advances in All-England Championships
Olympic Champion Ji Advances in All-England Championships
Olympic men's singles gold winner Ji Xinpeng and defending champion Xia Xuanze both eased into the second round of the all-England badminton championships in Birmingham, England on Wednesday.
Ji, who surprised the world by beating the current world number one Peter Gade Chrisensen of Denmark to win the Olympic gold medal,made short work of Belgium's Ruud Kuijten with a stright-set victory 15-6, 15-7 in just 28 minutes.
The third seed, who finished third here last year, has seen his world rankings vault quickly in the past year, which jumped from 16th before the Olympics to third at present.
"I'm not feeling as well as in Sydney," he said. "But the training was good during the winter. I am sure I can find back the form."
His teammate Xia, ranked second in the world, took a steady step toward retaining his champion, beating Thammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia 15-2, 15-7.
Chinese youngster Chen Yu also reached the second round with a comfortable win over England's Robert Nock 15-6, 15-7. Chen Hong, an Olympian ranked 12th in the world, became the fourth Chinese to advance in the men's singles by beating Conrad Hueckstaedt 15-9, 15-2.
But the opening day was not as perfect as it was expected for China, who won three out of five gold medals in the Sydney Olympic Games, as youngster Xiao Hui and veteran Hu Zhilan crashed out of the men's singles.
Xiao was eliminated by Rony Agustinus of Indonesia 15-9, 15-12 while the 29-year-old Hu, who is playing in Denmark and qualified for the match with three victories on Tuesday, went down to Dane Anders Boesen 15-3, 13-15, 15-4.
Chinese players also showed their depth in the other events when all of them should have entered the second round in the mixed doubles if Zhang Wei/Huang Sui had not met Chen Qiqiu/Chen Lin, who won the all-Chinese affair 15-1, 15-2.
Olympic mixed doubles champion Zhang Jun/Gao Ling advanced to the second round by beating Denmark's Janek Roos/Majken Vange 15-10, 15-12. And other three Chinese pairs also crossed the first hurdle, with Wang Wei/Zhang Jiewen beating Yau Kuwn Yuen/Ling Wan Ting of Hong Kong 15-1, 15-11, Cheng Rui/Wei Yili crushing David Lindley/Emma Chaffin 15-3, 15-7 and Liu Yong/Cheng Jiao routing Craig robertson/Yuan Wemyss of Scotland 15-14, 15-1.
Chinese top women's singles players, led by Olympic gold medalist and defending champion Gong Zhichao, all received a first-round bye and play their first match on Thursday. Wang Rong, the only Chinese player who entered as a qualifier, advanced to the second round at the expense of her fellow Chinese Xu Li 11-5, 11-3.Pi Hongyan humiliated Japan's Fumi Iwawaki 11-1, 11-1 in the other match.
Chinese men's and women's doubles players had a flawless day with all of the players cruising to the second round.
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