
Paris: Indonesia’s World No. 24 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito stunned World No. 2, Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, on a day of upsets in the French Open first round on Wednesday.
It appeared that the No. 3 seed Lee had all the momentum when he entered the Denmark Open final last Sunday, but it was Rhustavito who produced a masterclass to topple Lee 21-19, 21-18 to register his fifth victory over Lee in their 9th head-to-head encounter.
Rhustavito will play last week’s Denmark Open semi-finalist Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the second round.
China’s Shi Yuqi who won last week’s Denmark Open title was another big name to fall as he lost to World No. 36 Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand 16-21, 14-21.
Thammasin will play the No. 1 seed, Viktor Axelsen, on Thursday.
The upset in men’s singles continued as World No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan went down to Lee Cheuk Yiu from Hong Kong 21-23, 23-21, 18-21. Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting was defeated by Sameer Verma of India 15-21, 23-21, 20-22, while India’s World No. 8 Lakshya Sen was also brushed aside by teammate Kidambi Srikanth 18-21, 18-21 on Wednesday.
China’s World No. 37 men’s doubles pair Liang Wei Kang/Wang Chang scored arguably the biggest upset of the day when they down reigning World Champions and World No. 4 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik 21-13, 21-14 to play Mark Lamsfuss/Marvin Seidel of Germany next.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s World No. 2 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo were sent packing by World No. 25 Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han of Taiwan, going down 15-21, 21-15, 17-21. Lu/Yang will play Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi of China in the next round.