Shenzhen, Nov 25: Women’s singles world No. 1 An Se-young of South Korea and men’s singles second seed Ginting Anthony Sinisuka of Indonesia faltered in the second round of the 2023 BWF China Masters here.
World champion An experienced a straight-set loss to China’s Wang Zhiyi 21-12, 21-16, saying that she hasn’t fully recovered from injury. “I hope to return to the court as soon as possible, so I am here. But unfortunately, I can’t play very well now.”
“I think the injury did influence her performance. It was not the best An. But still, she is a very tough player and I need to learn from her,” commented Wang.
China’s Chen Yufei, seeded third, also advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia 21-9, 21-16.
In men’s singles action, Ginting was defeated by unseeded Lin Chun-yi of Chinese Taipei 21-18, 21-17. Lin is set to face Chinese shuttler Zhao Junpeng, who eased past Denmark’s Rasmus
Gemke 21-13, 21-14.
Japan’s third seed Kodai Naraoka endured a grueling 110-minute match to prevail over Denmark’s Anders Antonsen 21-19, 12-21, 21-19, while seventh-seeded Shi Yuqi of China was upset by France’s Christo Popov 21-15, 21-19.
“It was a tough game. I tried my best, so I finally won. I am really happy now. But I know it’s not the end. I still need to focus on the upcoming match,” said Popov.
The men’s doubles competition saw the top two seeds advance to the last eight, as India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, alongside China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, overcame their opponents respectively.
Mixed doubles top seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong and women’s doubles world No. 1 Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, both from China, secured straight-set wins to advance.
