Former badminton world number one Lee Chong Wei followed great rival Lin Dan out of the China Open yesterday as he too was on the end of an upset.
The 35-year-old Malaysian Lee, whose world ranking has fallen to seven as he approaches the latter stages of his career, went down in the quarter-finals to Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka-long in a 70-minute thriller.
The unseeded Ng defeated seventh-seeded Lee 21-12, 15-21, 21-19 to surge into Saturday’s semi-finals in Fuzhou.
It is the first time in six attempts that Ng has beaten Lee.
Ng, ninth in the world, will play world number one and top seed Viktor Axelsen after the formidable Dane beat Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-17, 21-14.
Lee’s exit, coupled with the shock first-round defeat of Chinese star Lin earlier in the week, is more evidence that the careers of two of badminton’s all-time greats are reaching their end.
In the other semi-final, South Korea’s number two seed Son Wan-Ho will play China’s reigning Olympic champion Chen Long.

Sindhu crashes out
In the women’s draw, Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand plays Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi and Carolina Marin of Spain faces the Chinese qualifier Gao Fangjie.
Gao, 19, reached the semi-finals by springing a major shock over India’s number two seed PV Sindhu, the China Open holder, 21-11, 21-10.
The second seed Hyderabadi shuttler was outplayed by Gao in a one-sided affair which lasted 37 minutes.
Right from the start, Sindhu never looked in the contention. She struggled against the Chinese shuttler and bowed out tamely.
Sindhu had entered the quarter-finals stage by beating Han Yue of China 21-15, 21-13 on Thursday.