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Lee Ends Jonassen's Campaign
South Korea's Lee Hyun-il defeated fifth-seeded Dane Kenneth Jonassen in three games to advance to the quarter-finals of the Beijing Olympics badminton men's singles competition.
| Lee, who won the Korean Open in January, was always going to be a dangerous floater for anyone who faced him in the men's singles draw. And it was veteran Dane Jonassen who was the victim as Lee fought back from a first-game deficit to win 15-21, 21-14, 21-19 in a 56-minute match. Lee will now take on Germany's March Zwiebler as the favourite to book a place in the semi-final. Zwiebler had earlier knocked out Great Britain's Andrew Smith 16-21, 21-13, 21-17 in a minor shock. China's Lin Dan, the top seed and favourite for gold, waltzed into the quarter-finals with a two-game victory over Hong Kong's Ng Wei. Lin scored a 21-16, 21-13 win to set up a last-eight clash with South Korea's Asian champion Park Sung-hwan or Africa's main hope, Edwin Ekiring, of Uganda. Park, unlike many of the top players, was not given a first-round bye. However, it proved to be a mere distraction as he easily disposed of Canada's Andrew Dabeka 21-11, 21-11. Lin will be wary of Park, who defeated the Chinese player's compatriot Chen Jin, who is also the All England champion, in the final of the Asian Championship in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in April. Second-seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei had little trouble in his opening match, defeating Singapore's Ronald Susilo 21-13, 21-14 to reach the last eight. His next opponent is Lithuania's Kestutis Navickas, who beat Russian Stanislav Pukhov 21-12, 21-17. There was heartbreak for Thailand's 2004 Athens semi-finalist Ponsana Boonsak. He was beaten 21-16, 21-14 in a round of 32 match by Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro. It was Kuncoro who beat Ponsana in the third-place play-off four years ago, thus denying him a bronze medal. Sony now takes on Finland's Ville Lang for a place in the last four. Lang defeated Raju Rai, of the United States, 21-9, 21-16. Former world number one, Peter Gade, of Denmark, eased into the quarter-finals by beating Algeria's Nabil Lasmari 21-6, 21-4. |
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