Even with the 3 top players taking the week off, China placed three players in the quarter-final round of each singles event of two simultaneous events. In order to do this, each of the Chinese men - 7 total as the Macau Open actually has 4 Chinese in the men's singles quarters - had to be double winners on the day.
By Don Hearn; Photo: Badmintonphoto.com (Archives)
In the Macau Open, Gong Weijie is doing his best to produce an all-Chinese final, even in the absence of Lin Dan. Gong dispatched Andrew Smith and Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto, both in straight games, to reach the quarter-finals. His road to the final is still occupied by Park Sung-hwan of Korea as well as the winner of today's match between Taufik Hidayat and Roslin Hashim.
In the other half of the draw, Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia stands alone with Chen Jin, Chen Hong and Bao Chunlai. Wong is the only one of the four to drop a game on the day, against Pakkawat Vilailak of Thailand. He was pushed to extra points before finishing off Vietnam's dangerous Tien Minh Nguyen 27-25, 21-11 and will face Bao Chunlai today. Chen Jin had no problem with Lee Hyun-il of Korea and will face Chen Hong in the other quarter-final. Zhou Mi, like Wong, is surrounded by Lu Lan, Wang Lin, and Xie Xingfang in the bottom half of the Macau Open women's singles draw.