Lin/Lee's 40th clash expected in quarterfinal of China Open

FUZHOU, China, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Three-time Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong wei from Malaysia expected his 40th encounter against Chinese badminton star Lin Dan in the quarterfinal of BWF Superseries China open which kicked off here on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old Lee, as the 7th seed, tried hard to keep in good shape after Rio Olympics, but recently he suffered a surprise defeat in the first round of Yonex French Open.

The duo Olympic gold medal winner Lin, world No. 4, needs to improve stamina, though he's one year younger than Lee.

"We may meet again in quarterfinals, but the first thing we should do is to play through the first and second round and not to crash out," Lee smiled, "we'll give you a wonderful game if both of us get there on Friday."

Lee told Xinhua every match means a lot to him as the age increases. "I have to make good preparation for every encounter, against every shuttler."

Rio Olympic gold medalist Chen Long, world No. 5, told Xinhua he hoped that Chinese shuttler would claim the title of men's singles after three consecutive years' runner-up.

"We have young and vigorous players now, I'm very much looking forward to the good results, " said Chen, "I played in Denmark and French Open after World Championship and National Games. It's really a lot of games. Hong Kong will be my last tournament this season."

"Tokyo 2020 is my fighting goal but it'll be two years and a half from now. I need to focus on the current games and I also need winter training to solve my problems and make good plan for the coming 2018," said Chen.

The world No. 1 mixed pair Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen won't play together in China Open for they have new partners respectively. Chen will try more efforts on women's doubles and Zheng will pair with his old partner in China Badminton Super League Huang Yaqiong who separated from Lu Kai.