early casulties
Badminton: Tsuen Seng faces the axe
BY RAJES PAUL
PETALING JAYA: Men's singles shuttler Lee Tsuen Seng is as good as out of the national elite team following his elimination in the first round of the China Masters in Beijing yesterday.
The 25-year-old Tsuen Seng, who has been given six months to prove himself worthy of a place in the national team, was beaten 15-5, 5-15, 13-15 by unheralded 20-year-old Chinese Li Yu.
In international tournaments this year, Tsuen Seng failed to get past early round except for a quarter-final appearance in the Swiss Open.
With his elimination from the China Masters, the Asian Championships (ABC), which will be held in Hyderabad from Sept 6-11, is set to be Tsuen Seng's last outing as a national player.
TSUEN SENG: Lost to China’s Li Yu 15-5, 5-15, 13-15 in the first round of the China Masters yesterday.
Besides Tsuen Seng, two other players who have been producing mediocre results too were also first-round casualties yesterday.
Yeoh Kay Bin was beaten 5-15, 10-15 by third seed Bao Chunlai of China while K. Yogendran was given a 7-15, 5-15 drubbing by another Chinese big gun – top seed and world number one Lin Dan.
Two other Malaysian singles players, Kuan Beng Hong and Mohd Roslin Hashim, cleared their first hurdle but not without scares from unknown Chinese players.
Beng Hong, who is ranked 11th in the world, had to dig deep into his reserves to eliminate Xie Xin 15-6, 11-15, 15-8 while veteran Roslin also needed three games to beat Qiu Yanbo 8-15, 15-12, 15-8.
In the second round today, Beng Hong will be up against Li Yu, who is playing only in his third international tournament.
Li Yu was a first-round casualty in the Korean Open last year and in the China Open, he defeated Malaysians Sairul Amar Ayob and Wong Choong Hann and Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro to reach the quarter-finals.
Roslin has a safer path to the quarter-finals. He will play against Denmark's Niels Christian Kaldau.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Chinese Lu Yi created the biggest upset of the day when he eliminated second seed and World Championships bronze medallist Peter Gade-Christensen of Denmark 15-13, 15-12 in the opening round.