SINGAPORE, 30 June 2005 — All top eight men’s seeds sailed through the first round of the $170,000 Singapore Open badminton tournament yesterday, with Chinese world No. 1 Lin Dan leading the way. The women’s side of the draw was a much more eventful affair, with three of the top eight seeds failing to make it past the first hurdle.
Women’s fourth seed Yao Jie of the Netherlands was the highest ranked player to bow out, losing to Chinese qualifier Jiang Yan Jiao, 11-9, 9-11, 3-11.
English seventh seed Tracy Hallam crashed out to Bulgaria’s Petya Nedeltcheva, 11-2, 3-11, 9-11 in a scrappy affair, while sixth seed Xu Huaiwen of Germany could not even take the court due to a wrist injury.
The beneficiary of the forfeit was veteran Mia Audina Tjiptawan, the former Indonesian badminton queen now representing the Netherlands.
The top seed in the woman’s draw, Xie Xingfang of China, had a much easier time, beating Thailand’s Salakjit Polsana 11-4, 11-5.
Fellow Chinese and defending champion Zhang Nin, the second seed, similarly breezed past Japan’s Eriko Hirose 11-3, 11-7.
Among the men, Lin was hardly stretched by India’s Abhinn Shyam Gupta, a former French Open winner, with the top seed winning 15-4, 15-6.
Second seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark, also quickly dispatched his opponent, Thai qualifier Pumpat Sapkulchananart, 15-3, 15-4.
Athens Olympics gold medalist and eighth seed Taufik Hidayat defeated South Korea’s Ahn Hyun-Suk 15-5, 15-11.
The only big name player not to make it past the opening round was Thailand’s Boonsak Polsana, the world No. 10 and a semifinalist at Athens. Polsana lost 7-15, 1-15 to South Korea’s Lee Hyun-il.
