(Photo source: sina)

Chen Jin, the 20-year-old Chinese player who caused a surprise by winning the German Open on Sunday, immediately caused another by upsetting the seedings on the first day of the All-England open.

Chen did that with a diligently crafted 17-14, 15-5 win over Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, the eighth seed from Malaysia who caused an even bigger upset himself three years ago when he won the All-England title.

It was probably the memory of this career-best achievement which caused Hashim to battle hard, creating a first game which was superbly fluctuating as well as am intriguing contrast of styles.

Chen, full of lively movement and frequently trying to speed the rallies up with flat disguised flicks, fast drops and swift lunges at the net, took leads of 10-6, 11-8, and 14-12.

Each time Hashim pegged the deficit back, varying the pace more and trying to ambush his opponent with fast jabs and sudden smashes. When he saved a game point with a tight overhead drop which forced Chen into the netting the shuttle, it seemed he might turn the match around.

But there followed two long hard rallies which more than anything influenced the outcome of the match. One finished with a low hairpin shot from Hashim falling wide and the other with the seeded player's net shot just falling back from the net tape.

It was level pegging till 5-5 in the second game, but from then on Hashim found it hard to contain the energy of his young opponent, and when he tried to increase the frequency of his attacks his error ratio rose.

Chen now looks to have a chance of progressing to a quarter-final with Peter Gade, the former All-England champion from Denmark who survived a potentially difficult first round with Park Sung-Hwan by 15-4, 15-9.

Another leading Chinese player, the top seeded Lin Dan, created an hour's tension by going the full distance in his opening encounter with Jang Young-Soo, a durable Korean, especially as the electronic scoring system which was being used for the first time failed to work properly, making it unclear whether the favourite was in trouble or not.

He appeared to have a little to spare, despite the closeness of the 15-5, 9-15, 15-9 score-line, increasing the pace of the rallies during the important phases of the third game. However he may have worked a little harder than he would have liked on a day when most players were obliged to compete twice.

However China's two other main challengers for the title, Bao Chunlai and Chen Hong, came through with less effort, both in straight games. Bao, the second seed, beat John Moody of New Zealand, while Chen, the sixth-seeded defending champion, overcame Yousuke Nakanishi of Japan.

(AFP)