Fuzhou: World number two Chen Long from China who won last year’s China Open, was out of the 2014 tournament after falling to world number 25, Marc Zwiebler of Germany 21-13, 23-25, 19-21 in 85 minutes on Thursday.
Chen Long netted an easy first game victory with 21-13 in just 18 minutes. Chen was leading by 17-10 in the second set before the resilient Zwiebler stormed back to level the score at 18-18, 19-19, and eventually won the second set 25-23; Chen Long and Marc Zwiebler again stayed neck and neck in the decider; Marc Zwiebler managed to stayed calm to eventually pull off the upset by defeating Chen 21-19. 
The sole men’s singles player from Malaysia – Chong Wei Feng, suffered the same fate as Chen Long — who lost to Sho Sasaki of Japan in 3 sets. Chong Wei Feng won the first set 26-24 and was leading 17-12 in the second before collapsing against the Japanese 21-23. After the demoralized second set loss, Chong Wei Feng had absolutely no answers to Sho Sasaki’s finesse and strength in third set by losing 6-21.
On the other hand, two times Olympics gold medalists Lin Dan fought back from losing the first set to beat the second seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 19-21 21-18 21-15 in an intense 72 minutes battle.
“Jorgensen played very well today, the stadium lights were bothering me a little bit, fortunately I could come out on top of the tight match,” said Lin Dan.
In women’s singles, second seed Wang Shixian’s journey at China Open came to a shuddering halt after she was stunned by Japan’s 2013, 2014 World Junior Champion Akane Yamaguchi 14-21, 10-21 in 40 minutes.
