National ace shuttler Lee Chong Wei was booted out of the India Open Super Series as early as the second round by Hong Kong’s Thomas Cupper Wei Nan at the Siri Fort Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, tonight.
World number three and tournament’s first seeded Chong Wei lost in the straight sets of 19-21 and 19-21 to the world number 14 after a 42-minute hard fought battle, according to Badminton World Federation (BWF) website www.bwfbadminton.org.
This is the second shocking exit for the former world number one after he was thrashed out in the All England Badminton Championships to a lesser-known player from India, B Sai Praneeth, who is ranked 32 below him in the world standings just three weeks ago.
Chong Wei, who was vying for his fourth India Open men’s singles title after claiming the crown in 2011, 2013 and 2014, will next compete in the 2016 Malaysia Open Superseries Premier from April 5 to 10 at Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam.
The 33-year-old, who had won the Malaysia Open for record 10 times, must put a good show to secure easy seeding to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
Earlier, the country’s top men's doubles pair, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong cruised in to the quarterfinals after defeating China’s Wang Yilyu/Zhang Wen in straight sets of 21-18 and 21-16.
The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medal winning pair will challenge fourth seeded Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark tomorrow.
Meanwhile, former national pair Hoon Thien How/Teo Kok Siang lost 19-21, 13-21 to fifth seeded Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Cheol of South Korea.
Malaysia did not send representatives in both the women’s singles and doubles and also the mixed doubles events in the tournament which offers a total prize money of US$300,000 (RM1.174 million).
- Bernama
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