Top seed Lee Chong Wei takes on unseeded Taiwanese shuttler Tzu Wei Wang in the Men's singles second round of All England Championships 2017 at the Barclaycard Arena on Thursday.
The world number one shuttler, who recovered in time from a knee injury for the ongoing tournament, needed only 32 minutes yesterday to outclass Brice Leverdez 21-15, 21-12. Chong Wei though was reportedly playing with heavy strapping over his injured knee and also benefited from the errors the Frenchman, who had defeated the Malaysian in last year's Denmark Open, made.
Having hinted that the ongoing tournament might be his last All England appearance, Chong Wei, who was not willing to pull out despite suffering the knee injury, will be determined to go the distance. The Malaysian shuttler has reportedly conceded that he is not 100% fit but that he will forget his injury and give his all in Birmingham.
And that is exactly what he needs to do against Wang, who stunned reigning Olympic champion Chen Long in the semi-final of last week's German Open Grand Prix Gold in Mulheim before finishing as runners-up after losing to Chou Tien Chen in the title match. The in-form Taiwanese shuttler started his All England campaign yesterday by clinching a tightly-contested clash that extended for 57 minutes against Hong Kong's Wei Nan 17-21, 21-19, 21-17.
The world number 25 would have benefited a lot from his hard-fought win over Chen in Germany as it was evident from the way he fought back against his first-round opponent yesterday. Having not met Chong Wei in the past, Wang has to be at this best to stand a chance of progressing past the second round but he will be looking to take confidence from his recent form to stun the top seed.
TV Schedule
Malaysia: AStro Supersport
China: LETV, GDTV
Taiwan: Sportcast
Thailand: True visions
Indonesia: Fox Sports
India: Star Sports
Australia: Fox Sports
Dubai: Dubai SPorts Channel
UK: BBC
Hong Kong: iCable, PCCW
Macau: TDM
Brunei: Astro
US: One World Sport
Denmark: TV2
