Denmark's Martin crashes out in third round
( 2001-06-08 09:35 ) (7 )

martin

Denmark's Camilla Martin lost her women's singles title at the world badminton championships when she was beaten 11-6 11-6 by China's Dai Yun in a third round match on Thursday.

It was revenge for Dai who had lost a tight and controversial final in Denmark two years ago when Martin was crowned champion.

Martin, who has often had to battle the might of China as virtually the sole European, said: "I always knew it was going to be very difficult."

In the quarter-finals on Friday, Dai now meets compatriot Gong Zhicaho, the Sydney Olympics gold medallist, who beat Wang Chen of Hong Kong 11-4 11-1.

Five of the last eight are Chinese while in the men's singles the sole European survivor in the quarter-finals is Denmark's Peter Gade, world number two and Martin's fiance.

He meets Hong Kong's Agus Hariyanto who claimed another seeded victim on Thursday when rallying to beat seventh seed Marleve Mainaky of Indonesia 7-15 15-7 15-5.

The men's singles tournament seems wide open after the defeat in Wednesday's second round of top seed Roslin Hashim of Malaysia.

Pick of the quarter-final clashes looks like being India's Pullela Gopichand against Chen Hong, the Chinese Gopichand beat to win the All England title in March.