LEE CHONG WEI, the former world number who has been making a sensational comeback at the age of 33, suffered one of the biggest shocks of his career when he was dumped out in the first round of the All-England Open on Wednesday.

    Lee’s stunning defeat, by 24-22, 22-20, was inflicted by B. Sai Praneeth, an Indian ranked at number 37 in the world, who looked to have little chance when he slipped to deficits of 3-11 and 6-15 in the first game.

    But once Lee made a few mistakes, Praneeth’s hopes grew and his game showed itself capable of winning rallies of the highest standard. He was fast, sometimes brilliant in defense, and had nothing to lose when launching sudden flat attacks.

    Lee had looked to have regained control with his clever tactical varieties when he advanced to lead 17-12 in the second game.

    He also had game points at 20-19 in both games, with the first being foiled by Praneeth’s diving defense and later missing his chance to take the match to a third by narrowly putting a smash wide.

    Two rallies later, the 23-year-old from Andhra Pradesh took his first chance to win the match, making a sudden fast mid-court jab, which forced Lee to block the shuttle long and caused Praneeth to hurl his racket away in joy.

    Earlier world number one Chen Long and Olympic champion Lin Dan gave China an encouraging start as each carefully overcame tricky hurdles to reach the second round.

    The two stars have seven All-England titles between them, and showed much of their experience in negotiating early difficulties with the cold conditions and winning in straight games against ambitious younger opponents.

    Chen won 21-18, 21-12 against Kent Nishikoro, a 21-year-old Japanese who led early on, and was still in touch in the middle part of the second game before a little extra pace and variety from the titleholder killed off his challenge.

    Lin won 21-17, 21-17 against Lee Dong-keun, a 25-year-old South Korean who turned the match into a good scrap in many long rallies, but found his legendary opponent always playing better when it mattered.

    (SD-Agencies)