China's world champion Xia out of Japan Open
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-04-07 09:25

China's world champion Xia Xuanze was knocked out of the Japan Open badminton tournament on the first day on Wednesday.

Xia was surprisingly beaten 15-2, 15-12 by South Korean qualifier Lee Cheol-Ho.

Xia, the 10th seed and 2003 champion here who eased past Japan's Hidetaka Yamada earlier in the day, seemed to run out of energy against Lee and never recovered from a poor first set.

Xia joined defending champion Ronald Susilo, Thai ace Boonsak Ponsana, 12th seed Niels Christian Kaldau of Denmark and 11th seed Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands on the sidelines.

Boonsak beat China's Chen Jin in his early gamebefore crashing to another Chinese, Chen Yu. Kaldau let slip a match point at 14-12 in the deciding set before losing to Kuan Beng Hong of Malaysia 12-15, 15-4, 15-14.

Palyama was knocked out by Agus Hariyanto of Hong Kong in the first round and Susilo, of Singapore, was beaten by Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei 15-5, 17-16 in his second match.

Meanwhile the top three seeds breezed into the third round. World number Lin Dan shot down England's Aamir Ghaffar 15-6, 15-9, former world number one Peter Gade of Denmark beat Japan's Yuichi Ikeda 15-1, 15-5 and third seed Chen Hong of China beat Nicholas Kidd of England 15-8, 15-8.

Athens Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat ofIndonesia had a walkover when Sairul Amar Ayob of Malaysia dropped out of their match with a right ankle injury at 15-11 in the first set.

"It's better than getting tired for tomorrow's match," commented Hidayat, who was playing his first match of the season due to knee and back injuries.

"I was wondering whether I would go to Japan ornot. I decided to come here when I was training inJakarta last Friday. My condition is still 50-50. I'm still trying to get used to the court," he added.

China's Chen Yu came back from 1-10 down in thefirst set to run out 17-16, 15-6 winner over Thailand's Boonsak.

"I never lost my concentration and I was able to hit solid shots throughout the match. I didn't get off to a good start because I was mentally notready for the match," said the Chinese.

Malaysian brothers Muhammad Hafiz Hashim and Muhammad Roslin Hashim also won their two matches.

Hafiz Hashim, the ninth seed, defeated Japan's Keishi Kawaguchi 15-5, 15-4 and Anders Boesen of Denmark 15-7, 13-15, 15-6, while his elder brothersaw off Japan's Hiroshi Shimizu 15-10, 15-3 and Hariyanto of Hong Kong 15-8, 15-10.

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