BWF Indonesia Open 2024: Jonatan Christie crashes out, An Seyoung and Marín progress
More seeds fell by the wayside at the first hurdle of the 2024 Indonesia Open badminton tournament on Wednesday (5 June), with home favourite Jonatan Christie and Japan's Naraoka Kodai both losing their round of 32 clashes in the men's singles.
Third seed Christie was beaten by Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao in three games, but even in the second, which the Indonesian won, he had to come from behind with 10 of the last 11 points as he never looked fully at the races.
Leong triumphed 21-13, 16-21, 21-12 in an hour and two minutes to leave Indonesia without a shuttler left in the men's singles draw of their home event in Jakarta, after Anthony Ginting's loss a day earlier on Tuesday.
Fifth-seeded Naraoka was defeated in straight games, 12-21, 10-21, by Denmark's Rasmus Gemke to leave the draw wide open: only four seeds are left in the men's singles after the opening round, with world number one Viktor Axelsen not competing due to injury.
In the women's singles, top seed An Seyoung of Republic of Korea and third seed Carolina Marín of Spain are both through to the second round.
An faced stiff resistance early from Japan's Miyazaki Tomoka but eventually asserted her dominance against the world number 24, triumphing 20-22, 21-7, 21-11 in a little over an hour.
Marín, meanwhile, completed a straight-games win over Zhang Yiman from People's Republic of China 21-16, 21-18, although Zhang was level in both games at 16-16 before the Spaniard pulled clear each time.
Fifth-seeded Yamaguchi Akane of Japan is out, however, after she conceded a walkover in her match.
