Lee battles to third round of world championships

Lee battles to third round of world championships

World number one Lee Chong Wei was forced to fight for his place in the world championships Wednesday in a thrilling battle with an unseeded opponent.

Lee Chong Wei returns the shuttlecock against Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia in Jakarta in June. World number one Lee was forced to fight for his place in the world championships Wednesday in a thrilling battle with an unseeded opponent.

The Malaysian's arch rival, Chinese superstar Lin Dan, breezed through his second-round match against Dutch player Eric Pang, winning 21-14, 21-17, leaving him on a collision course for a final against Lee.

Spectators in Guangzhou were left stunned as they watched Lee lose the first game of the second round 14-21 to Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia, who is ranked 26th in the world.

Rumbaka has met Lee five times and never beaten him, but he showed no sign of nerves, repeatedly forcing him to the net with drop shots which took the pace out of the Malaysian's game.

Lee looked increasingly rattled and murmurs of disbelief rippled around the Tianhe gymnasium, as he went behind in the second game.

The pair traded smashes and body shots, but Lee recovered to take the second game 21-18 before winning the third 21-11, hitting his attacking stride in the final points.

"I couldn't find my pace, especially in the first game," Lee told reporters.

"Today has been a reminder that I have to get more prepared for the coming matches so I can perform better," he said.

Lee, 30, is gunning for Malaysia's first ever world title, on the back of wins this year in South Korea, Indonesia, India and Malaysia, with fans hoping for another classic clash with Lin.

Olympic and world champion Lin, who has spent most of this year on the sidelines to have time with his family, was rarely stretched by Pang in Wednesday's match, controlling the court and injecting pace when he needed.

"The shuttlecock is going faster and faster in the men's singles competition and it's getting tough in major competitions. I will do my best but no one knows who the next world champion will be," Lin told reporters

Number two seed Chen Long, also of China, was given a tougher challenge by Japanese veteran Sho Sasaki, winning 21-15, 21-12 after a lacklustre start which saw him go 6-10 down in the first game.

Chen is on course to meet Lin in the quarter-finals if both survive their third-round matches.

Top-ranked women's singles seed Li Xuerui of China, who took gold at the London Olympics, strolled to victory in her first game of the tournament, beating Ukraine's Marija Ulitina 21-9, 21-10.

Current women's singles world champion, China's Wang Yihan, beat Indonesia's Belaetrix Manuputi 21-12, 21-8.

Reigning women's doubles world champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang and number two seeds Ma Jing and Tang Jinhua also went through to the third round.

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