The focus on day 3 at Yonex Denmark Open was centered around the Chinese men's singles. Chen Long was very close to an exit from the second round, while countrymen and super star Lin Dan was forced to withdraw because of a knee injury.
Women's Singles
The Chinese favorites showed no sign of instabilities just like in the first round. The three highest seeded players of the tournament, Chinese Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian and Wang Yihan did not seem to much effort into their second round matches, all winning in straight games.
Liu Xin (F) from China is also in the quarterfinal, defeating Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon in a thrilling three games match 21-9 22-24 21-13. There will be four Chinese women's singles among the last eight players including Liu Xin (F).
Four seeded Korean Sung Ji Hyun will be one of the four players, who will try to avoid a chinese victory in Yonex Denmark Open. She has played very solid in her first two matches, securing a safe win in straight games against Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in the second round.
India will be represented by P. V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in the quarterfinals. Especially Nehwal played a great match in the second round, raising the expectations to her quarterfinal against second seeded Wang Shixian.
Finally the american Beiwen Zhang has found her way amongst the final eight players. However, she will have to come up with something extraordinary to proceed further in the tournament, when she is facing the top seeded Li Xuerui.
Men's Singles
The match that everyone looked forward to on day 3 was never played. Chinese super star Lin Dan withdrew with an injury, making way to the quarterfinal for the only Danish men's single left in the tournament, Jan Ø. Jørgensen. Lin Dan had been struggling with the knee injury before the tournament and when it got worse in his first round match, he was forced to withdrew.
The other major Chinese favorite, Chen Long, was also close to an exit in his second match. The world champion had to find extra power in his match against Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk from Thailand. Chen Long finally secured a spot in the quarterfinal, winning 16-21 21-19 21-19. He will face French Brice Leverdez from France.
The absent of Lee Chong Wei in the upper half will make way for a surprising contestant in the Yonex Denmark Open final. One of the two finalists in men's singles will be either Skrikanth K. from India, seventh seeded Son Wan Ho from Korea, Boonsak Ponsana from Thailand or the young chinese Tian Houwei.
Mixed Doubles
Two Danish mixed doubles qualified for the quarterfinals along with the Chinese and Indonesian favorites.
Women's Doubles
The quarterfinals in women's double will be a matter between Danmark, China, Japan and Korea.
Danish double, Christinna Pedersen og Kamilla Rytter Juhl, are up against chinese Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang in the quarterfinal on friday. The danish double won the match aginst another chinese pair Lou Ying/Lou Yu, and Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang won against Pia Zebadiah Bermadeth/Rizki Amelia Pradipta from Indonesia.
Chinese Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei will face countrymen Ma Jin/Tang Yuanting in one of two quarterfinals in the lower half. The chinese doubles won against the two korean doubles, Ah Ha Go/Hae Won You and Lee So Hee/Seung Chan Shin.
In the upper half Koreas Ye Na Chang/So Yeong Kim and Japans Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahasi are ready for the quarterfinal after victories over Swedish/Danish Emilie Fabbeke/Lene Grebak and Korean Kyung Eun Jung/Ha Na Kim.
The last quarterfinal in the upper half is between Japans Reika Kakiwa/Miyuki Maeda and the topseeded Chinese Bao Yixin/Tang Jinhua, who secured their way to the quarterfinal by winning against German Johanna Goliszewski/Carla Nelte og Netherlands Eefje Muskens/Selena Piek.
See all the result from the women's doubles here.
Men's Doubles
There were a lot of great matches Thursday at the Yonex Denmark Open between the top men’s doubles in the world. Many of the favourites were sharp like razorblades, but the fourth seeded Japanese pair Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa after they lost in two games against Qui Zihan/Liu Xiaolong from China.
It’s has been a rough day for the homecrowd, who had to say goodbye to the two young doubles Anders Skaarup Rasmussen/Kim Astrup Sørensen and Frederik Colberg/Søren Gravholt. For both Danish dous it ended with a defeat to Korean finalists from the World Championship.
But the Danes can still cheer for Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, who are ready for the quarterfinals after a victory over chinese Liu Cheng and Kang Jun without giving up a game.
In the next round will the third seeded Danes face Chai Biao/Hong Wei.
Also Mohammed Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan from Indonesia are through to the quarterfinals, after they defeated their Chinese opponents in two games; 24-22, 21-13.