Three-time champion Lee Chong Wei was upset in the first round of the badminton All England Championships on Wednesday, with Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen the only other seeded player of 16 to lose across the men’s and women’s fields.
Just when the round seemed set to finish virtually incident-free, the last match of an 11-hour day stunned the remaining fans, as B. Sai Praneeth of India, who lost all four previous meetings with Lee, ousted the second-seeded Malaysian 24-22, 22-20.
The defeat ended Lee’s 21-match winning streak, which included titles in France, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia since October last year. They helped him rebound quicker than even he expected from an eight-month doping suspension last year.
Praneeth came from 15-7 down to tie the first game. Lee was first to game point, but Praneeth got him on his third game point. In the second game, Lee led 16-10 then 17-12, but Praneeth tied him at 19, rubbed out a game point for Lee and won the final three points.
In other games, No. 1-ranked Chen Long, Chinese teammate Lin Dan and third-seeded Jan Jorgensen of Denmark — who beat Hsu Jen-hao of Taiwan 21-14, 21-14 — all won their openers.
Chou, a quarter-finalist last year, lost to Tommy Sugiarto of Malaysia, 21-14, 21-14.
Chou beat Sugiarto just last month in the Asia team championships and made the German Open final last week, but he looked tired against Sugiarto.
In the women’s event, Carolina Marin’s title defense almost tripped up in the first round. The Spaniard beat Bae Yeon-ju of South Korea 25-23, 20-22, 21-15, but it was a struggle all the way.
None of the other seeded players dropped a game, including No. 2 Saina Nehwal of India, the runner-up last year, and No. 3 and Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China, who ousted Taiwan’s Hsu Ya-ching 12-21, 16-21.
There was only one winner for Taiwan on Wednesday, with Tai Tzu-ying earning a second-round match against South Korea’s Sung Ji-hyun in the women’s singles today after defeating Sayaka Sato of Japan 22-20, 21-16.
In other results for Taiwanese, in the men’s doubles, Chen Hung-ling and Wang Chi-lin lost to England duo Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge 21-19, 21-14; Lee Jhe-huei and Lee Yang were beaten 16-21, 15-21 by Bastian Kersaudy and Gaetan Mittelheisser of France; Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin went down to Indonesia’s Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi 24-22, 21-13; and Liao Min-chun and Tseng Min-hao were eliminated by Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark 21-11, 21-14.
In the women’s doubles, Chang Ye-na and Lee So-hee of South Korea beat Hsieh Pei-chen and Wu Ti-jung 21-14, 21-10; Hsu Ya-ching and Pai Yu-po lost to China’s Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan 17-21, 13-21; and Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan downed Chen Hsiao-huan and Huang Mei-ching 21-11, 21-11.
In the mixed doubles, Yang Lee and Hsieh Pei-chen lost to Indonesia pair Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir 15-21, 16-21, while Lee Jhe-huei and Wu Ti-jung lost to Thailand’s Puavaranukroh Dechapol and Sapsiree Taerattanachai 17-21, 13-21.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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