Defending champion Xie suffers first-round exit
Updated: 2008-03-06 10:06
BIRMINGHAM, England - Women's top seed Xie Xingfang crashed out of her first tournament since return from injury, losing to Yip Pui Yin from Hong Kong 22-20, 21-19 in the first round of All England championships on Wednesday.
 Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong, reacts after beating number one seed Xie Xingfang, in the women's singles first-round match, at the All England Badminton Championships in the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, England, Wednesday, March 5, 2008. [Agencies] |
The 27-year-old has won the All England title for the last three years but bowed out in 43 minutes to her unseeded opponent.
In men's singles, her boyfriend Lin Dan fought from one game behind to beat Indian Anup Sridhar 16-21, 21-8, 21-11.
Xie, who missed Malaysian and South Korean Open in succession due to a lower back injury, suffered a slow start, trailing 17-8 while Yip managed to exploit the obvious lack of match practise from the world number one.
Xie came back to level at 20-all only to surrender to the young Hong Kong player's penetrating attack and lose the opening game 22-20.
While the second game was extremely tight at the beginning with both players matching each other in all areas of their game, it turned out to be a repeat of the first towards the end.
Xie crawled her way back into 19-19 after 19-16 down. But she failed to force a decider, losing the final two points.
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