Chinese shuttlers advance in Badminton Asia Championships, An ousts Okuhara

Chinese shuttles advanced across all five events after the first round of an intense Badminton Asia Championships on Wednesday, among other highlighted matches of the day including a battle between An Se-young of South Korea and Japan's Nozomi Okuhara.

The tournament, which runs from April 9 to 14 in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, is the final chance for Asian shuttlers to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games. The results of each match directly impact the results of Olympic qualification, as such is the case in the crucial fixture between An and Okuhara who needed to outperform fellow Japanese Aya Ohori to earn a berth.

The South Korean world number one effectively denied Okuhara's Olympic hope with a hard-fought comeback victory of 21-15, 18-21, 21-17 in 89 minutes.

"I couldn't find my legs in the third game, but I kept telling myself to keep running on the court. I have tried my best. I will adjust my mentality and prepare for the upcoming Uber Cup," said Japan's former world number one in tears.

Unlike Okuhara, who had her back against the wall, An now gets a moment of relief despite the fact that she's still working through an injury suffered last year.

"It was a tough match. I'm happy that I finally won. The knee injury is still there. I have to learn to live with it," said An.

Meanwhile, home favorites Chen Yufei, He Bingjiao, Han Yue and Wang Zhiyi all claimed straight-game victories to progress in the women's singles.

In the women's doubles, China's top seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan swept past Indonesian duo Lanny Tria Mayasari/Ribka Sugiarto 21-15, 21-14 to advance. "Our goal is to win every match. I hope we can top the podium in Paris," said Chen, the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist. Two other Chinese women's duos also advanced.

In the men's singles, Shi Yuqi moved past India's Lakshya Sen 21-19, 21-15, and Li Shifeng beat Mahd Shaikh from Saudi Arabia 21-11, 21-12.

In the men's doubles, Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi withstood the pressure from Indian pair M.R. Arjun/Dhruv Kapila and saved four match points to inch closer to obtaining an Olympic berth with a 2-1 victory, while three other Chinese pairs also advanced in this category.

In the mixed doubles, top-ranked Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, among three Chinese pairs, eased past Malaysia's Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei 21-15, 21-15 in only 34 minutes.