Peter Gade bids farewell to Japan Open
Two-time champion Peter Gade's final appearance in the Japan Open badminton tournament ended in a first-round defeat to Hu Yun of Hong Kong on Wednesday. The second-seeded Dane, who came back from a left-wrist injury, lost to the China Masters finalist 11-21, 20-22, in the men's singles event. "Of course, I wanted to do better. But I broke my wrist some weeks ago. Today I couldn't move. I still have pains," said Gade, whose wrist was in a plaster cast until last Friday. "I brought my family here and I wanted to have a nice day with them. Hu reached the final last week in the China Masters. If I played like normal, it would have been a close match," he said. "I love Tokyo. This is one of my favourite cities in Asia. I will come back some day," said Gade, adding that his best memory of Tokyo was a back-to-back victory in 1999. Another two-time Japan Open champion, top seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, eased aside Anand Pawar of India 21-13, 21-9, while 2008 champion Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia lost to Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 21-14, 17-21, 18-21. "After the Olympics, I've been trying to change my style technically, because it becomes physically tougher to play with hard-hit shots when you get old," said Lee, 29. "It's my new challenge, but I don't stop hitting hard shots," he added. Sixth seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark bowed to Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 22-24, 16-21, and fifth seed Kenichi Tago of Japan lost to Chong Wei Feng (MAS), 21-8, 16-21, 17-21, but other seeds safely went through. Athens Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, seventh seed, whipped Kashyap Parupalli of India 21-18, 21-18, while Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, eighth seed, outclassed Brice Leverdez of France 21-19, 21-19. In the women's competition, seeded players 2007 champion Tine Baun of Denmark, Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, South Korea's Bae Yeon-Ju and Sung Ji-Hyun, and Japan's Ai Goto advanced. But seventh seed Gu Juan of Singapore fell victim to Japan's Minatsu Mitani 16-21, 17-21.
