JINZHOU, China, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Badminton great Lin Dan booked a place in the semifinals of the 12th Chinese National Games on Monday, while top players Chen Long, Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian were all stunned by lower-ranking opponents.
The rampant Lin, representing the People's Liberation Army(PLA), carved out a 21-16, 21-15 victory over national teammate Gao Huan from Liaoning in 54 minutes. He will meet another young player Huang Yuxiang of Zhejiang who took a two-set win against Liu Kai of Liaoning.
However, world No. 2 Chen Long of Fujian, tipped as a future star who could take Lin' s crown, was defeated by national teammate Chen Yuekun of Hubei 21-19, 21-19 in the quarter-finals.
In the women's singles, top seeded reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui of PLA scored two wins in quarter and semifinals, and she will take on Liu Xin in Tuesday's finals.
Former world champion Wang Yihan of Shanghai suffered a defeat by Liu Xin of PLA in the quarterfinals, with the scores for the three sets being 21:12, 12:21 and 22:20.
In another upset, Asian Games winner Wang Shixian of Jiangsu was knocked out by Han Li of Sichuan 15-21, 21-5 and 21-10.
In the badminton event, almost all of Chinese top players represent their respective home province or municipality in the country's premier sporting event.