-Olympics
Former badminton world champions Loh Kean Yew and Carolina Marin both sealed important victories in Round 2 of the BWF China Open 2023, on Thursday, 7 September.
Singapore shuttler Loh was brilliant from the off in his men’s singles match against in-form Dane Anders Antonsen, winning the first game 21-17.
World No. 10 Antonsen, who made the World Championships semi-finals last month, simply couldn’t gain a foothold in the match, and eventually succumbed 21-12 in the second game.
The victory avenged Loh’s loss to Antonsen in the final of the Korea Open last month, and the seventh seed will take on the winner of Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen and Wang Tzu Wei in the quarter-finals.
In the women’s singles, three-time world champion Carolina Marin showed some of her best form to comfortably dispatch Gao Fang Jie of the People’s Republic of China, 21-9, 21-16.
The Spanish sixth seed scored six consecutive points to wrap up the first game.
It was a similar story in the second, and despite a brief rally from Gao where she went ahead in a game for the only time in the match, Marin safely closed out the fixture in 42 minutes.
Elsewhere, men’s fifth seed Jonatan Christie continued his good run with a 12-21, 21-15, 21-14 victory over Canada’s Brian Yang.
The Indonesian will play his compatriot Shesar Hiren Rhustavito in the quarter-finals, who beat Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia in a thriller 18-21, 21-11, 22-20.
Finally, women’s singles second seed Yamaguchi Akane booked a quarter-final clash with Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt, thanks to her 22-20, 21-17 win over South Korea’s Kim Ga Eun.
Featured Image: The Star