LI NING CHINA OPEN DAY 3 - Wong beats Wang to face Wang

Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo (pictured) defeated Wang Yihan in two straight games today, destroying China’s hopes of monopolizing the women’s singles one stage earlier than last week’s all-Chinese semi-final round. But is she on her way to a repeat of her fairy-tale China Open run of 2007? Meanwhile, Lee Sheng Mu / Fang Chieh Min sent Olympic champions Markis Kido / Hendra Setiawan packing, reserving Taiwan a ticket in the men’s doubles semi-finals, after compatriots Chen Hung Ling / Lin Yu Lang gained a victory over another Indonesian pair, Bona Septano / Muhammad Ahsan.

By EeLyn Ooi, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: BadmintonPhoto (live from Shanghai)

Meanwhile, Thai women's double’s fresh faces Duanganong Aroonkesorn / Kunchala Voravichitchaikul booked themselves a date with Olympic gold medallists Du Jing / Yu Yang after managing to stop 7th seeded Chang Hsin Yun / Chou Chia Chi of Taiwan in 21-14, 21-14. Following their victory over two Chinese pairs, including reigning World Junior champions Tang Jinhua / Xia Hua, Lee Kyong Won / Ha Jung Eun of Korea find themselves up against Ma Jin / Wang Xiaoli for a second straight week. The in-form Chinese pair will be eager for a fourth straight win over Lee Kyung Won after making way past team-mates Deng Yuting / Luo Ying in two games of 21-15, 21-11.

Meanwhile, China will be attempting to duplicate its near domination of the women's doubles semi-finals, as four pairs have advanced. However, Malaysia's Chin/Wong took three games to beat one new pairing from Chinese Taipei, Cheng/Tsai, and will now face off against another, Chien/Wang, to see which of the similarly-named combinations will present the only guaranteed non-Chinese challenge on Saturday.

Coming in fast and furious, Chen Hung Ling and mixed doubles partner Chou Chia Chi vanquished England’s Denmark Open runners-up Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg. Awaiting them are the 7th-seeded Thais Songphon Anugritayawon / Kunchala Voravichitchaikul, who also happened to got the better of another English pair, Chris Adcock and Gabrielle White. This will set up a meeting of two double-quarter-finalists, where Chen will attempt to aid Chou in her revenge on Voravichitchaikul for her women’s doubles upset.

In women’s singles, Wang Shixian, who had kicked off her campaign for a second straight Super Series title at home with a huge win over France's Pi Hongyan, then defeated Olympic bronze medallist Maria Kristin Yulianti. Wang, along with six other Chinese ladies will assail the solo Malaysian Wong Mew Choo in the quarter-finals. If Wong wants to repeat her dream conquest of 2007, she will have to duplicate the feat of eliminating four formidable Chinese opponents at home. Two years ago, that happened to include the reigning All England, Olympic, and World Champions. This time, the All England winner is down and World Champion Lu Lan may loom in Wong’s future.

Among the Chinese flowers includes qualifier Shi Xiaoqian, who saw Japanese Eriko Hirose off in 21-15, 16-21, 21-17 to earn a meeting with last week’s runner-up Jiang Yanjiao, who defeated Sayaka Sato in two straight games. Sailing along are, Lu Lan, Wang Xin and and two qualifiers Lu Xuerui and Xia Jingyun (pictured above), both of whom have just pulled off two huge upsets.

Fang Chieh Min (pictured) and Lee Sheng Mu have successfully taken revenge for their defeat at the hands of Markis Kido / Hendra Setiawan in the first round of the Hong Kong Open last week. Denmark joined Taiwan as confirmed guests on the courts this coming Saturday as Lars Paaske / Jonas Rasmussen will play Marthias Boe / Carsten Mogensen after showing Thai Songphon Anugritayawon / Sudket Praprakamol and Hui Wai Ho / Albertus Susanto Njoto of Hong Kong some good moves, respectively.

Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung meet the troublesome Guo Zhendong / Xu Chen in the quarter-finals while Lee’s longtime partner in junior and domestic play, Cho Gun Woo and Shin Baek Cheol, with whom Lee won the German Open, will need their A-game in order to get through the world’s top pair of Koo and Tan.

Korea's Park Sung Hwan (pictured) will be hoping to regain his status as nemesis to Lin Dan in the semis, but first he will have to triumph over Du Pengyu in Friday’s quarter-finals. Park fought for a full 73 minutes through three games with 2002 champion Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia. before finally taking it 21-23, 21-18, 21-13.

Most of the other men’s singles matches on the day went smoothly for the favourites but Du Pengyu upset the higher-ranked Chetan Anand of India and England’s Carl Baxter briefly troubled Simon Santoso before the 7th seed won out in three games.

For complete results from Day 3 of the 2009 Li Ning China Open Super Series, CLICK HERE

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