Lingshui: The 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China who made a winning return to international competition on Wednesday after a 600 days layoff due to injury, worked her way past teammate Fan Mengyan 21-16, 21-14 on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of BWF Tour’s Lingshui China Masters.
Li is set to play Joy Deng Xuan of Hong Kong on Friday.
In men’s singles, Malaysian shuttlers including Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, Chong Wei Feng and Daren Liew have all entered the quarter-finals.
The No. 7 seed Zulkarnain needed 40 minutes to outlast local player Weng Hongyang 21-19, 21-9 and will face Lin Yu Hsien of Taiwan next.
Former Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) player and No. 2 seed Chong Wei Feng successfully defeated Taiwan’s Yang Chih Chieh 21-18, 21-19 and will meet Zhou Zeqi of China in the last eight； while Daren Liew was made to work before he eked out a three-set victory against Heo Kwang Hee of South Korea 13-21, 21-17, 21-19. Liew will battle Lu Guangzu of China for a semi-final berth.
