A tired Peter Gade lost in the third round of his home event, after having to go through the qualifying. He went down to Roslin Hashim, who achieved his best results in over a year and a half of competition.

"I just couldn’t play my regular game. My legs weren’t following my pace and I realise I had given too much in yesterday’s match against Lin Dan." Peter Gade (pictured) was obviously disappointed during his post match press conference. Disappointed that he couldn’t do more in front of his public. "I wish I had done better as I didn’t play my very best today, even if I didn’t feel pressure before the match."

On court, the Dane looked a little tired as he couldn’t keep up with the long rallies imposed by the Malaysian, Roslin Hashim, who had waited for some time to do well in a major tournament. Always very patient, the Nusa Masuhri player just took one point at a time and made the Dane cover the four corners of the court.

"I know how to play against him as I have beaten him a few times already. I tried to keep the shuttle inside the court and wait for his mistakes. But today, he did too many unforced errors. Maybe he was too tired, especially in the second game. I didn’t expect it to be that quick," added Hashim. The Dane lost 11/15, 4/15 on the first match point.

By beating the Dane, Hashim (pictured) had his best result since his victory in the Japanin April 2001, just before claiming the number one spot. Since success in Japan, the Malaysian has never gone further than the second round of a major event.

Yet this defeat will not be enough to take away Gade’s overall satisfaction about his tournament. "I am quite happy about the way I played here, I had some tough matches and my match against Lin Dan proved that I am able to play at top level" said Gade, who will be going to China next month to try to get more points for the world ranking.

Hashim is now looking forward to playing Wong Choong Hann. "I have to play against my friend Choong Hann, and it will be a tough match. We’ve never met in an international competition before, so it will be quite" explained a delighted Hashim. Wong beat Irwansyah of Wales and looks quite strong after his recent win at the Dutch

Kaldau becomes a father but leaves the Open

Niels Christian Kaldau (pictured) didn’t have much sleep between his last match and today’s, as he finally had to go back to the hospital late last night, when his wife was to give birth to his daughter, Sofie-Amale, born at 3 o''clock in the morning. This drained the 27 years old medical students resources, as he couldn’t keep up with the pace set by Anders Boesen, who also happens to be a medical student.

"It was a clever match," joked the latter when referring to their common studying. "But I played my match as I would have against anyone, I wanted to prove that I could beat Kaldau, who played well today." said Boesen.

The third medical student of the draw, Peter Rasmussen, also advanced to the quarter finals. He beat Yamada of Japan, after the latter had enjoyed a withdrawal from Ong Ewe Hock the previous day. Rasmussen will be the third Dane left in the draw, after compatriot Kenneth Jonassen beat Indonesia’s last hope, Sony Dwi Kuncoro.

The other qualified players are Chen Hong - he got a scare against Ronald Susilo, who put up a much better fight than during their previous encounter in Singapore – Anupap Thiraratsakul, who outplayed Agus Hariyanto, and Luo Xilin of China who has come all the way from the qualifying rounds.

In the ladies single event, no big surprise as all the big guns advanced to the next round. Camilla Martin easily outplayed compatriot Tine Hoy 11/3, 11/3. China’s Gong Ruina and Xie Xingfang also advanced without dropping a single game, while the Netherlands had two of their three players make it to the quarter finals. Mia Audina and Yao Jie are still in the competition, while Judith Meleundijks was beaten by last year’s runner up, Pi Hongyan. Tracy Hallam, and Wang Chen are the other players progressing to the next stage.

Report and pictures by Raphael Sachetat