Birmingham: Rio Olympic champion Chen Long is out of the 2017 All England after suffering a second-round loss to Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand on Thursday. Chen who lost to Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan at last week’s German Open semi-finals, was knocked out by Saensomboonsuk 16-21, 19-21 in 50 minutes.
Saensomboonsuk will play last week’s German Open champion Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan on Friday.
World No. 1 men’s singles player Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia who is still battling a knee injury, overcame last week’s German Open runner-up Wang Tzu Wei 21-18, 21-18 to set up a quarter-final encounter with 2009 World Youth champion Tian Houwei of China.
Lee took the first set comfortably in his second round match against Wang, but had to work extra hard to held off a thrilling fight from Wang before claiming the second set.
Six-time All England champion Lin Dan’s great run continued as he breezed into the quarter-final, by virtue of his victory against compatriot Huang Yuxiang 21-16, 21-11. Lin sets up revenge chance against No. 3 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark on Friday. Lin lost to Viktor Axelsen in the bronze medal playoff at last year’s Rio Olympic.
Meanwhile, men’s doubles No. 1 seeds Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong cruised past Liu Xiaolong/Xu Chen 21-12, 21-16 and will play No. 6 seeds Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China in the quarter-finals.
