Ginting out; Axelsen, Marín tested but reach last eight
Meanwhile, Indonesian seventh seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting suffered a shock defeat by tumbling out of the competition to Leong Jun Hao, the Malaysian ranked 29 places below him.
After Leong surprisingly took the first game in which Ginting never led, the Indonesian bounced back in the second. Ginting came from behind to level the game, then posted 10 consecutive points en route to squaring the match at a game apiece.
But Leong started much the stronger in the decider, tallying nine points in a row himself as Ginting trailed in his wake, with the Malaysian eventually winning 21-14, 10-21, 21-8 as the seventh seed provided little resistance.
Elsewhere, Olympic champions Viktor Axelsen and Carolina Marín were each pushed to three games but eventually both secured their spots in the last eight.
Axelsen faced Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi and looked on course for an easy win, keeping Lin behind him for the entirety of the first game.
But the world number 17 Lin managed to disrupt Axelsen’s game in the second to force a decider, before the Dane produced an almost-carbon-copy of the first to close out a 21-16, 14-21, 21-16 win.
Meanwhile Rio 2016 women’s champ Marín took on her old friend P.V. Sindhu in a repeat of the 2016 Olympic final in a match that lived up to the hype.
It was Sindhu who struck first, taking the opening game 21-13 and seemingly dominating. But the Indian had no answer as Marín finally got into her groove in the second to level the match.
The decider was an enthralling affair, with Sindhu leading through most of the third game and with a gap of five points on three different occasions. But Marín never gave up and the Spaniard levelled the game at 19-19 before getting over the line for a 13-21, 21-11, 22-20 victory.