SYDNEY -- Lin Dan has suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Denmark' s Viktor Axelsen in the opening round of the Australian Badminton Open in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Lin Dan opened the match with a win in the first game, however Axelsen fought back to put in a dominating performance in the second.
Lin Dan regained composure in the third to take an early lead, however Axelsen put in a string of eight consecutive points to open a gap and win the match 19-21, 21-12, 21-15.
The Europeans had a great day on the court putting together some other upsets of the tournament.
England' s Rajiv Ouseph defeated Kenichi Tago of Japan, 21-11, 21-14. France's Brice Leverdez took revenge over Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto, 7-21, 21-18, 21-14, who defeated him at the 2014 Australian Badminton Open.
China' s hopes are still alive as top seed Chen Long overcame an early scare to defeat India' s R. M. V. Gurusaidutt 15-21, 21-9, 21-17. Chen Long meets Hu Yun on Thursday.
In the ladies draw, Li Xuerui dismissed German Karin Schnaase in straight games 22-20, 21-8 to set up a round 2 match with Japanese contender Minatsu Mitani on Thursday.
After hurting her ankle at 1-1 in the first game, Canada' s Michelle Li overcame her injury to defeat Nozomi Okuhara 21-17, 21-19.
The longest match so far belongs to the doubles pairing of Denmark's Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and the new Malaysian combination, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong at 74 minutes. The Malaysians defeated the Danes 21-9, 18-21, 30-28.
The MetLife BWF World Superseries tournament continues until Sunday with the world' s best competing not only for 750,000 U. S. dollars in prize money, but valuable qualifying points for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
