Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat failed to make the quarterfinals
of the Macao Open badminton championship after losing to South
Korea's Lee Hyun Ii on Thursday.
The Indonesian ace edged to a narrow win over Hong Kong's Wong
Wai Hong at 17-21, 21-11, 21-19 in the morning but was stopped by
Lee 21-17, 18-21, 12-21 in the afternoon.
Led by Lin Dan, four of China's five men's singles contestants
made it through into the last eight.
Lin, China's best title hopeful, edged South Korea's Shon Sheung
Mo 21-14, 20-22, 21-10 in the morning before stopping Japan's Shoji
Sato 22-20, 21-9 in the afternoon.
Lin's compatriots Bao Chunlai, Chen Hong and Chen Jin also
sailed into the quarterfinals.
Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei, Muhd Hafiz and Sairul Amar will
challenge the Chinese men's singles legion in the
quarterfinals.
In the women's singles competition, three of China's four
players advanced into the quarterfinals.
The world number one Zhang Ning swept past Chinese Taipei's Pai
Min Jie 21-7, 21-3, booking a berth in the quarterfinals along with
her compatriots Lu Lan and Zhu Lin.
But Wang Lin was knocked out by Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin 13-21,
21-11, 18-21.?
(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)