Barcelona: There were few shock exits on day three at Barcelona Spain Masters, but men’s singles No. 1 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark still grabbed the headlines, as he continued to dominate in the second round.
The World No. 6 Axelsen made it through to the quarter-finals with a 21-19, 21-16 win over World No. 60 Ajay Jayaram of India. The Dane will be set to play World No. 69 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore next.
Loh, the brightest rising star in international badminton so far this year, bounced back from a set down to beat Parupalli Kashyap of India 21-12, 18-21, 21-15 in a 57-minutes battle.
In another surprising result, 20-year-old Singaporean women’ singles player Yeo Jia Min was too strong for London Olympic Champion Li Xuerui, upsetting the Chinese player in a dominating battle 21-16, 21-17.
The unseeded Yeo will face No. 4 seed Line HøJmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark on Friday.
Malaysia’s men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin roared to life in the second round as they dig deep to beat Lin Chia Yu/Yang Ming-Tse of Taiwan 19-21, 21-18, 21-9 in 46 minutes. Goh/Izzuddin will face No. 3 seeds Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in the last eight.
Meanwhile, women’s doubles No. 4 seeds Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean of Malaysia had an answer to whatever Paula Lopez/Laura Santos of Spain threw at them as they advanced to the quarter-finals with a 21-6, 21-9 win. Chow/Lee will next take on No. 6 seeds Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong of Korea.
Nevertheless, another Malaysian women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo/Yap Cheng Wen was able to put on a great fight before going to No. 2 seeds Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan 11-21, 21-18, 14-21 in 54 minutes.
