The second day of the individual event at the Asian Games saw a few high-profile upsets, with top seed Shi Yuqi, sixth seed Kidambi Srikanth, and HS Prannoy crashing out yesterday.
Shi was shown the door by an inspired Jonatan Christie, who took full advantage of playing in front of his home crowd, as he stopped the top seed 21-19 19-21 21-17 to enter the third round.
In the same half, sixth seed Kidambi (India) was edged in a tight contest by Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki, 23-21 21-19. Wong faces Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei next.
Another casualty was Kidambi’s compatriot HS Prannoy, who was outplayed in three games by Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen.
Mixed Doubles third seeds Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir, seeking their first Asian Games gold medal, made the quarter-finals beating Korea’s Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yoo Jung, 22-20 21-17. They take on Hong Kong’s Lee Chun Hei/Chau Hoi Wah, who won a sensational result over Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying in the closest match of the day: 21-17 19-21 28-26.
Fellow-Malaysians Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai also fell to a Hong Kong pair in a close contest – 14-21 21-11 22-20 – to Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet.
In Women’s Doubles, top seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota progressed to a quarter-final clash against Korea’s Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan, while third seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan (China) will take on India’s Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy.
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