KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei stamped his mark to advance into the second round of the Yonex Denmark Open, held at Odense, Denmark early this morning.
The world number one made short work of his 18-year-old opponent Viktor Axelsen in the first set.
In the second set, the Danish player boosted his game to lead 16-10, but Chong Wei, who begun to play more aggresively, bounced back for a 17-17 tie and finally won the game 21-8, 21-18 in 28 minutes.
Top seed Chong Wei will face Thailand ace Boonsak Ponsana in the next round.
The other Malaysian singles who made it into the second round were Liew Daren and Tan Chun Seang, together with all the seeded singles players such as Chen Long of China, Simon Santoso of Indonesia and Sho Sasaki of Japan.
However, Danish star Peter Hoeg Gade was shown an early exit by Sourabh Varma of India 18-21, 14-21, much to the disappointment of the home crowd.
In the men’s doubles, Malaysia’s number one Koo Kean Keat and Tan Boon Heong edged out the South Korean scratch pair Ko Sung Hyun/Lee Young Dae 8-21, 21-16, 21-19, to reach the round of 16.
Koo and Tan are set to meet local pair Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Jonas Rasmussen.
Meanwhile, in another surprise twist of the tournament, Olympic champion and second seeded Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng decided to withdraw from their first match against Baek Cheol Shin/Yeon Seong Yoo of South Korea, after Cai Yun complained of a shoulder injury. — Bernama