China Open Super Series Premier off to a flying start in qualification round

Yash

Kazumasa Sakai of Japan hits a return to Xue Song of China in the men’s singles qualifying round at the China Open badminton tournament in Shanghai on November 12, 2013

The much awaited China Open Super Series Premier got off to a flying start on Tuesday, 12th November, 2013. The prize money of this tournament is USD 350,000. The tournament will be played from 12-17 November, 2013 at the Yuan Shen Gymnasium. The Gymnasium has 4 court locations to hold parallel matches.

On the first day of the tournament, matches for the qualification rounds of Men’s singles, Women’s Singles and Men’s Doubles categories were played.

In the Men’s Singles category, the 76th ranked Xue Song defeated 35th ranked Kazumasa Sakai in one turnout match. Xue Song also defeated Nan Wei in his next match. Wan Ho Son, Houwei Tian, Xue Song and Vladimir Ivanov also qualified in this category for the main rounds which will be starting from Wednesday, 13th November, 2013.

In the Women’s Singles Category, Nozomi Okuhara of Japan defeated Qin Jinjing in a lengthy match which lasted to 3 sets. The Chinese Shuttler Bing Jiao He and Hui Xirui defeated their respective opponents in the same category to march to the main rounds.

In the Men’s Doubles category, pair of Zhuofu Chen and Lu Kai of China crushed Mongolian opponents Erdenebayar Enkhbold and Zolzaya Munkhbaatar by a score of 21-3 and 21-2. Surprisingly, the match lasted only for 12 minutes.

The main round will start from tomorrow. 7 players will represent India in different categories including Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles.

It will be interesting to witness the determined Saina Nehwal’s performance in her first match of the tournament against the Japanese shuttler Nozomi Okuhara. She is the only seeded Indian player in the China Open 2013. India players would like to start afresh after an unconvincing performance in the last few tournaments.

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Edited by Staff Editor