Women’s top seed Li Xuerui falls at All England Open

Birmingham March 6: While women's top seed Li Xuerui suffered a surprise defeat to compatriot Sun Yun at the All England Open badminton championships, five times champion Lin Dan reached the third round with straight sets victory here.

Li, the winner in 2012, was beaten 21-13, 21-13 by the 21-year-old Sun, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

"I have tried my best today, but I have not entirely recovered from my foot injury yet, I only started training again about two weeks ago," Li said.

Two-time Olympic champion "Super Dan" laboured to beat teammate Hou Tianwei 21-15, 21-19. Lin, the fifth seed, will next take on Kento Momoto of Japan for a semi-final berth.

Top seed Chen Long, last year's beaten finalist, crushed Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei 21-7, 21-9.