Chinese maestro Chen Long stops Hong Kong’s Wei Nan in his tracks at badminton’s Denmark Open

Hong Kong badminton ace Wei Nan’s run in the men’s singles at the Denmark Open came to an abrupt halt at the hands of world number one Chen Long

Wei, who eliminated former world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the previous round at the Open, a premier Superseries event on the world tour, found the mainlander too hot to handle. After taking the opening game 21-16, the Hong Kong player dug deep to counter Chen’s fierce offence but succumbed after an hour-long battle, losing the next two games 21-13, 21-16.

In another men’s singles match, two-time Olympic gold medallist Lin Dan suffered one of his worst defeats, the Chinese number three seed losing in straight games, 21-8, 21-7.

Wei now heads to Paris for next week’s French Open, another Superseries tournament, where he will have a chance to meet Lee again in the second round if the form books hold.

Hong Kong’s hopes in the US$650,000 tournament ended as women’s doubles duo Tse Ying-suet and Poon Lok-yan also lost in the quarter-finals to Japanese duo Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda. Tse and Poon, the first women’s doubles pair from Hong Kong to win a Superseries title, at the 2012 Japan Open, were beaten 21-18, 14-21, 16-21 in three games of a gruelling 77-minute match.