Birmingham: On a day of upsets, Lin Dan, Chen Long and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo have all suffered early departures on first day of 2019 All England.
Six-time All-England champion Lin Dan bowed out in his first ever All England first-round defeat when he lost to Japan’s Kana Tsuneyama 21-19, 14-21, 7-21 on Wednesday.
This was his first opening-round All England defeat since he made his debut in 2002 at the world’s oldest badminton tournament.
“It’s tough for me to stay focus late in the first round. I find it hard to get back my concentration after it was interrupted,” said Lin who was fighting for one of the two men’s singles spots allocated to China in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Everybody is player hard to earn more Olympic qualifying points. I will need to play more tournaments to rack up sufficient ranking points,” added Lin.
Taiwan’s No. 3 seed Chou Tien Chen was also made a shock first round exit as he was beaten by China’s Huang Yuxiang 14-21, 21-16, 22-24.
The Rio Olympic champion Chen Long was also sent packing in the first round when he lost to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 15-21, 17-21 in 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Daren Liew was able to advance to the second round by beating Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand 21-13, 21-17 to set up a second round meeting with No. 2 seed Shi Yuqi, whom Liew defeated in the quarter-finals of the 2019 Malaysia Masters.
The seeds continued to crash out of the All England with the top men’s doubles pair, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia was knocked out by Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan of China 21-19, 20-22, 21-17 in 67 minutes.
Two other Malaysia men’s pair, including Tan Wee Kiong/Goh V Shem, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik were able to enter the second round.
Tan/Goh will play Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe on Thursday. Endo and Watanabe defeated the reigning Malaysian champions Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi in the first round.
The World No. 18 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik will play World No. 6 Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark for a spot in the quarter-finals.
