Mulheim an der Ruhr: Denmark’s unseeded Emil Holst produced the performance of his life to send two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan crashing out of the German Open men’s singles third round on Thursday.
Lin Dan was struggling from the beginning, losing to the Dane 10-21, 16-21 in 46 minutes. Holst will play No. 6 seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan next.
China’s Rio Olympic champion Chen Long however managed to breeze past No. 12 seed Kidambi Srikanth of India 21-19, 22-20 and will play No. 9 seed Hans-kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark on Friday.
Olympic silver medalists Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying showed their never-say-die spirit as the Malaysian pair battled into the mixed doubles quarter-finals of German Open on Thursday.
Chan/Goh held off the challenge of German duo Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich 21-15, 16-21, 23-21 to scrape through to the final 8. The No. 2 seeds from Malaysia will play Chinese eighth seeds Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui next as they continue their pursuit of the German Open title.
Another Malaysian mixed doubles pair however did not look too seriously troubled by Nipitphon Phuangphuapet/Jongkolphan Kititharakul of Thailand, winning 21-16, 21-17 to set up an encounter with Wang Chi-lin/Lee Chia-Hsin of Taiwan next.
