Wong Choong Hann was the first seed to bite the dust in the first day of the main draw of the 2009 Li Ning China Masters.  It was an early hint that the home favourites are in for a clean sweep.

By Manoj Singh, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

Day 2 of the Li Ning China Masters Super Series went very smoothly for most of the top level singles players.  All seeds but 2007 runner-up Wong Choong Hann (photo) are safely through to the second round.  The Malaysian veteran, who was seeded eighth in this event, could not do much against Philippine Open Champion Chen Long of China.  Chen, now ranked #28 in the world, played a superb match, beating Wong very easily in the first game 21-9 and in second, he did not give the favourite the chance to get back into it and finished that game 21-17.

Rajiv Ouseph from England played extremely well in his first game against Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand, beating the youngster 21-8 but Tanongsak was just as dominant in the second, which he won 21-12.  In the decider, Tanongsak was leading by 12-9 when Rajiv played made his comeback to 13-13.  The English champion kept the edge and finished off the third game 21-17.

England, in fact, had a perfect day as their only other player in action this week, world #33 Andrew Smith, scored an even more impressive victory when he took out world # 12 Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong 21-19, 12-21, 21-17.

Denmark also had two winners on the day as both Joachim Persson and Peter Gade enjoyed easy victories.  Gade will come up next against Korea’s Shon Wan Ho, who took a game from the Danish star in Seoul early in the year, while Joachim Persson (photo) was quite happy about an important first win : "I won my first match against a Chinese player. The drift was very strong, so it was hard to play. I am satisfied that I stayed calm in the close situations and kept control of the net. It's good to be in 2nd round and to feel I have a lot of energy left" said the Dane. Korea’s second success came when last year’s Asian Champion Park Sung Hwan, narrowly edged 2008 Asian Junior Champion Wang Zhenming 21-18, 22-20.

In the first round of women’s singles, too, all the top seeded players have made it to the second day.  A tough fight was seen between Tine Rasmussen of Denmark and Zhang Yuchun of China.  Zhang took the first game easily but third-seeded Rasmussen bounced back strongly and finish the second and third games to win the match 12-21, 21-15, 21-13.

Close one for Pi

Although overall, the field at the China Masters sees a preponderance of young Chinese, many of them unknown, the women’s singles draw is packed with talent and this resulted in a number of big name duels in the first round.  The most fruitful of these for the spectators had to be the showdown between Pi Hongyan of France  (photo) and Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong.  The first game quite literally went the distance.  Although Pi Hongyan blew four game points in a row it was she who held on in the clutch to keep nosing ahead from 25-all until the last grasp gave her the mandatory game-ender at 30 points.  She finally won 30-29, 21-18.  The other profile matches included Jiang Yanjiao’s win over Wong Mew Choo and the battle of past and present World Champions, wherein Lu Lan won easily over Zhu Lin.

Moon Hi Kim of Korea had some trouble against Salkajit Poonsana of Thailand but finally prevailed 14-21, 21-19, 21-16.  Kim’s compatriot Bae Seung Hee, runner-up at the recent Chinese Taipei Open, showed some impressive fight against Wang Yihan but the All England Champion came out on top 21-15, 15-21, 21-17.

Doubles is all about China as all their stalwart pairs advanced as well as some upset-perpetrating youngsters.  Men’s doubles has two Korean pairs who advanced on easy wins over unknown locals and two Malaysian pairs who had first round byes.  Malaysia lost veterans Chan/Chew lost to Shen Ye and Li Tian, both of them former Asia Junior Champions who are yet to see a breakthrough as seniors, though Shen did have a flash of fame when he partnered Fu Haifeng to the Denmark Open final last fall.  Chinese Taipei Open champions Chen Hung Ling / Lin Yu Yang could not get past China’s Sun/Tao and Zhang/Chai took care of Korea’s Hwang/Shin.

Mixed doubles is down to two nations as Korea had three pairs come through the first round but two of these, Ko/Ha and Shin/Jang, must face each other on Thursday.  The first upset came when Chinese teens Chai Biao / Xia Huan ousted Hong Kong’s fourth-seeded Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama / Chau Hoi Wah.  Women’s doubles was upset-free as four visiting pairs came through over unknown opposition to join a near-dozen Chinese pairs in the second round.

For complete results from Day 2 of the 2009 Li Ning China Master Super Series, please CLICK HERE

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