TOKYO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Former world No. 1 Lin Dan continued his lackluster run in the BWF World Tour, suffering a men's singles first-round exit at the Japan Open here on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner and five-time world champion, was beaten 16-21, 21-11, 23-21 by Danish shuttler Jan Jorgensen in one hour and nine minutes.
Lin was the last Chinese competing in the 750,000 U.S. dollars tournament's men's singles event, following Olympic champion Chen Long, Lu Guangzu and Huang Yuxiang all seeing first round exits in straight sets.
Another Chinese shuttler, Shi Yuqi, seeded second here, announced Tuesday that he would withdraw from the Tokyo tourney due to an ankle injury sustained at the Indonesia Open last week.
Two Chinese duos, Zhang Nan/Ou Xuanyi and He Jiting/Tan Qiang, were also ousted after the first round of play on Wednesday in the men's doubles, losing 21-16, 21-14 to third seeds Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan and 21-18, 21-12 to Indonesia's top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo respectively.
On the women's side, second-seeded Chen Yufei defeated Indonesia's Fitriani Fitriani 21-5, 21-19 to reach the singles second round, while Chen Xiaoxin ousted Singapore's Yeo Jia Min 21-12, 21-11. Li Xuerui lost to Malaysia's Xie Shuya 21-18, 19-21, 21-17.
Other matches involving Chinese shuttlers all ended in favor of the badminton powerhouses on Wednesday as women's doubles pairs Li Wen/Zheng Yu and Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, as well as mixed doubles duo Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, Lu Kai/Chen Lu and Wang Yilv/Huang Dongping all qualified for the next round.
The Japan Open, held in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic venue Musashino Forest Sport Plaza with a seating capacity of 7,200, is one of the five Super 750 tournaments of the badminton governing body's World Tour and serves as one of the Olympic qualifiers.
