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China's Lin Dan exits Australian Open after shock upset

Xinhua, May 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese shuttler Lin Dan has suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Denmark's Viktor Axelsen in the opening round of the Australian Badminton Open in Sydney on Wednesday night.

Lin opened the match with a win in the first game, however Axelsen fought back to put in a dominating performance in the second.

Lin regained composure in the third to take an early lead, however Axelsen put in a string of eight consecutive points to open a gap and win the match 19-21, 21-12, 21-15.

The Europeans had a great day on the court putting together some other upsets of the tournament.

England's Rajiv Ouseph defeated Kenichi Tago of Japan, 21-11, 21-14. France's Brice Leverdez took revenge over Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto, 7-21, 21-18, 21-14, who defeated him at the 2014 Australian Badminton Open.

China's hopes are still alive as top seed Chen Long overcame an early scare to defeat India's R. M. V. Gurusaidutt 15-21, 21-9, 21- 17. Long meets Hu Yun on Thursday.

In the ladies draw, Li Xuerui dismissed German Karin Schnaase in straight games 22-20, 21-8, to set up a round 2 match with Japanese contender Minatsu Mitani on Thursday.

After hurting her ankle at 1-1 in the first game, Canada's Michelle Li overcame her injury to defeat Nozomi Okuhara 21-17, 21- 19.

The longest match so far belongs to the doubles pairing of Denmark's Kim Astrup / Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and the new Malaysian combination, Goh V Shem / Tan Wee Kiong at 74 minutes. The Malaysians defeated the Danes 21-9, 18-21, 30-28.

The MetLife BWF World Superseries tournament continues until Sunday with the world's best competing not only for 750,000 U. S. dollars in prize money, but valuable qualifying points for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Endi