HYDERABAD (Reuters) – Chinese world number two Chen Jin overcame early resistance to join Malaysian number one Lee Chong Wei and Indonesian former champion Taufik Hidayat in the world badminton championships third round on Wednesday.
Chen, 23, last year’s Olympic bronze medallist, struggled due to the drift caused by the air-conditioner before switching to flatter shots to overcome India’s Parupalli Kashyap 14-21 21-10 21-7.
The organisers turned the air-conditioner ducts towards the roof before the event after complaints there was too much drift.
Chinese Olympic champion Lin Dan, seeking a hat-trick of titles, overcame awkward fellow left-hander Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand 21-16 21-12.
Lee, hoping to upstage Chinese defending champion Lin Dan to capture a first major title, outplayed Ola Fagbemi of Nigeria 21-11 21-14 in just 21 minutes.
Fourth seed Hidayat, Olympic champion in 2004, downed Mathieu Lo Ying Ping of France 21-17 21-15 to advance along with former finalist Peter Gade of Denmark, who shut out Sho Sasaki of Japan 21-11 21-12.
Women’s world number one Zhou Mi of Hong Kong swept past New Zealand’s Michelle Chan Ky 21-11 21-15 while Chinese second seed Wang Lin beat Japan’s Yu Hirayama 21-13 21-12.
Indian sixth seed Saina Nehwal, 19, had to overcome some resistance in the second game before defeating unseeded Russian Anastasia Prokopenko 21-10 21-17.
Chinese Olympic silver medallist Xie Xingfang, the fifth seed, advanced when Bulgaria’s Linda Zechiri retired while trailing 23-21 18-10.
However, two seeded women players were knocked out.
Japan’s Ai Goto sent Malaysian 14th seed Mew Choo Wong packing 18-21 21-12 23-21 while Thailand’s Salakjit Ponsana defeated Dutch 16th seed Judith Meulendijks 11-21 21-16 21-11.
