Wuhan: Men’s singles defending champion Lin Dan has a tough task at the 2015 Dong Feng Citroen Badminton Asia Championships 2015 that started on Tuesday.
If everything goes according to plan, the No.2 seed Lin Dan will clash against No.1 seed Chen Long in the men’s singles final. It will also be a good chance for Lin Dan to get revenge on his junior after Chen Long defeated Lin Dan in both the 2015 All England semi-final and the 2015 Malaysia Open final. However, Lin Dan needs to clear several hurdles before reaching the final, as there are several opponents such as Son Wan-Ho of South Korea, Wang Zhengming of China, and Parupalli Kashyap of India are eagerly waiting to overthrow Lin Dan at the tournament.
Other than some walkovers, there were not a lot of surprises on the day one of the Badminton Asia Championships. Malaysia’s Commonwealth Games champions Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei got through the first round without even lifting a racquet after their opponents Alina Klychkova-Yana Sarkisyan of Turkmenistan granted them a walkover. If the Malaysian pair could advance deep into the tournament, they could potentially climb up to top 10 in the to be released Badminton World Federation (BWF) world rankings.
However, Malaysian pair Amelia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho who won the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold women’s doubles title early this year, suffered an early exit after they were defeated by South Korean Lee So-hee-Shin Seung-chan 5-21, 18-21 in 40 minutes.
Malaysia’s men’s singles player Chong Wei Feng and women’s singles player Tee Jing Yi will begin their quest for the title on Wednesday. Chong Wei Feng will take on Aljallad Ahmad of Syrian Arab Republic while Tee Jing Yi faces Mazahreh Leina Fehmi of Jordan in the second round.
