China's Lin Dan (top) plays a shot to Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei during the semifinal of the Thomas Cup badminton championships in Jakarta May 16, 2008. [Agencies] |
China's Lin Dan, the top seed and favorite, and world No 2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia could meet in the men's Olympic final after they were paired in different halves of the draw on Saturday.
All the top seeds in the men's singles received first-round byes, but second seed Lee Chong Wei was handed a tricky second-round encounter.
The Malaysian faces Singapore's Ronald Susilo, the man who famously beat hot favorite and world No 1 Lin Dan in the opening round at the Athens Games four years ago.
Lin's second-round opponent in Beijing will be Hong Kong's unseeded Ng Wei. Titleholder Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, seeded joint fifth after slipping down the rankings, meets Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann.
China is seeking to win five out of five badminton titles on home soil during the August 8-24 Beijing Games but second-seeded Lee has his own imposing target - winning the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Malaysia.
At the recent Thomas and Uber Cups tournament in Indonesia, Lee beat Lin, the world No 1, giving him a massive confidence boost for Beijing.
Chen Jin, another Chinese, is seeded third in the top half of the draw and stands between Lin and his possible Olympic showdown with Lee.
Another challenger Lin would prefer to avoid is also in the top half of the draw - Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat, the Athens Olympic champion.
But Hidayat's form and fitness has dipped in the run-up to Beijing and his world ranking has slipped to ninth.
Lee faces problems of his own in the bottom half of the draw, which features another talented and ambitious Chinese contender in All-England champion Bao Chunlai.
Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark and another gifted Indonesian, Dwi Kuncoro, are also considered threats.
In the women's draw, locals are hoping favorite Xie Xingfang will meet Athens Olympic champion Zhang Ning in an all-Chinese final.
Zhang is no longer the player she was four years ago but Xie, despite her form problems of late - she was ousted in the first round of the All-England tournament - is expected to clinch another gold for China.
A record 50 teams are taking part in the competition but China is counting on a monopoly of medals after winning three out of five in Athens, and four out of five in 2000 in Sydney.
The biggest problems could come in the men's and mixed doubles.