Gopi’s giant-killing act continues

Last year’s All England champion Pulella Gopichand pulled off another upset win today, beating in-form third seed Lin Dan of China to seal his place in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open badminton tournament. The ninth seed from India, who beat world champion Hendrawan of Indonesia in five games yesterday, again came back from a game down twice to score a 3-7, 7-3, 5-7, 7-4, 7-3 victory in 59 minutes.

China suffered another major set-back when All England winner Chen Hong, the second seed, fractured his right leg and had to abandon his match with Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia. Chen was 4-6 down in the final game.

But current Asian champion and top seed Xia Xuanze went through comfortably, beating defending champion Muhammad Roslin Hashim, Hafiz’s elder brother, 7-4, 7-0, 7-4 to set up an all-Chinese encounter against Chen Yu. China dominated the women’s singles with defending champion Zhou Mi, world champion Gong Ruina, Asian champion Zhang Ning, former Asian junior champion Hu Ting, 2000 Asian champion Xie Xingfang and Dai Yun all reaching the quarters. The 1998 Asian Games gold medallist, Kanako Yonekura of Japan, and Chen Wang of Hong Kong are the only non-Chinese challengers.