China's Gao stuns world champ Okuhara, moves into Badminton Asia Championships 2nd round

WUHAN -- Chinese player Gao Fangjie overcame reigning world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-15, 23-21 here on Wednesday, advancing into the second round of the Badminton Asia Championships.

The victory gave the 20-year-old Chinese girl sweet revenge for her round 16 defeat to the world No 6 in the German Open one month ago.

"I will ascribe the win to my coach Zhang Ning. She helped me make targeted game plans to keep pressure on Nozomi," Gao said. "And she emphasized that I should forget about the result on the court, just strive for the victory point by point."

Zhang claimed the Olympic gold in Athens 2004 and defended the title four years later in Beijing 2008 before her retirement in November that same year. She then started her coaching job with the Chinese national team as an assistant.

Gao has made a great breakthrough in her career in the past five months. It all started in November last year, when she went all the way into the final of the BWF China Open, after outlasting India's Pusarla Venkata Sindhu and Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin, only to be defeated by Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the final.

Only half a month later, Gao won her first title in international events in South Korea.

The impressive performance has helped her world ranking rise from 89 to the current 28. And many are expecting that team China will take her to the Uber Cup, to be held in Thailand next month.

"No matter whether the coaches choose me or not, I will prepare myself for any game. If I can go to Thailand, I will try my best to win our team the trophy," Gao said.

Gao will play Nehwal Saina of India in the second round, the latter having eliminated a qualifier in first round.

Early in the morning, China's He Bijing, seeded eighth, defeated her Hong Kong compatriot Yip Pui Yin 21-19, 21-14.

In the men's singles, Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei beat home star Qiao Bin 21-17, 21-16, and will face the winner between Karunaratne Niluka of Sri Lanka and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.