As many as 10 seeded players or pairs crashed on an upset-dominated Day 3 of the YONEX GAINWARD German Open 2022.
Women’s singles saw the most casualties, with the top two seeds – Tai Tzu Ying and world champion Akane Yamaguchi – losing to Sayaka Takahashi and He Bing Jiao.
Yamaguchi, also the three-time defending champion, went down 21-17 21-11 while Tai suffered her first defeat (21-15 21-18) in seven meetings against Takahashi.
Also out was seventh seed and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Pusarla V. Sindhu, who lost her first clash with Zhang Yi Man 21-14 15-21 21-14.
Their exits leave Chen Yu Fei (third), An Seyoung (fourth) and Ratchanok Intanon as the only remaining seeds in the draw.
Women’s doubles lost its second and fifth seeds following Lee Sohee/Shin Seungchan and Chiharu Shida/Nami Matsuyama’s failure to beat Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu and Jeong Na Eun/Kim Hye Jeong respectively.
Zhang and Zheng battled 80 minutes before defeating Lee/Shin 21-19 15-21 21-14 in their maiden meeting.
Indonesian men’s singles stars, fourth-seeded Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and sixth-seeded Jonatan Christie, succumbed as well, albeit rather meekly. Christie was beaten comprehensively by Kunlavut Vitidsarn 22-20 21-9 while Ginting only lasted 34 minutes against Lakshya Sen in his 21-7 21-9 loss.
Favourites through
- Men’s singles top seed Viktor Axelsen defeated Toma Junior Popov 21-17 21-10 to set up his 12th duel with eighth seed Kidambi Srikanth, who saw off Lu Guang Zu 21-16 21-23 21-18.
- Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai picked up a convincing 21-10 21-15 victory over local pair Jones Ralfy Jansen/Linda Efler.
- An however, slogged to a 21-19 22-24 21-15 result against world No.28 Han Yue.
NOTEWORTHY:
- Ou Xuan Yi, the new partner of both Huang Ya Qiong and Liu Yu Chen, will contest two quarterfinals.
- Yvonne Li is the sole home shuttler in the last eight following her 16-21 21-12 21-15 win over Lianne Tan.