By Simon Baskett
MADRID (Reuters) – Joint fifth seed Chen Hong breezed into the second round of the world championship with a 21-11 21-9 victory over Pedro Yang of Guatemala on Tuesday.
The Chinese, a semi-finalist at the Thailand Open this year and winner of the China Open and the All England in 2005, put Yang under heavy pressure throughout, forcing him into a series of errors at the Palacio de Deportes.
Chen will meet Simon Maunoury in his next match after the Frenchman eased past Iran's Kaveh Mehrabi 21-17 21-7.
Defending world champion Taufik Hidayat, unseeded in Madrid because of his inconsistent form this season, is in action later on in the day when he takes on joint ninth seed Ng Wei of Hong Kong in his first round match.
It will be the fiery Indonesian's first appearance since he stormed out of the Hong Kong Open last month.
In an unprecedented incident in top-class badminton, Hidayat walked out of his quarter-final showdown against arch-rival Lin Dan just three minutes into the match in protest over a changed line call.
The International Badminton Federation said that it would discuss what action should be taken over the incident on Saturday.
In the women's event world number three Xie Xingfang, seeded joint third in Madrid, begins her bid to retain her title when she takes on Kati Tolmoff in a first round match later on Tuesday.
In a nail-biting first round contest Austria's Simone Prutsch managed to stave off a determined fightback from Finland's Nina Weckstrom to win through 21-10 19-21 24-22.
(source: IOL)
