Gopichand bows out

All-England badminton champion Pulella Gopichand crashed out of the Denmark Open 2001, being played at Farum Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Denmark Open is a prestigious 6-star tournament, which, with prize-money of US $250,000, is the most lucrative World Grand Prix event alongside the Korea Open.

Gopichand, seeded seventh in the tournament, lost to Bao Chunlai of China, 3-7, 2-7, 7-5, 1-7 in the quarter-finals on Friday.

The Indian ace had earlier defeated ninth seed Lee Tsuen Seng of the Malaysia 7-3, 7-5, 2-7, 7-5 in his third round match on Thursday.

Gopichand was seeded fourth in the last year's edition of the tounrnament and lost in the second round to Johan Hadikusuma of Indonesia.

The Indian ace, who was returning to the big league after a two-month injury lay-off, has made little impact since his All England Open victory, way back in March, and was looking to prove his worth at Copenhagen.

In the other quarter-finals, Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia defeated countryman Sairul Amar Ayob 7-4, 7-0, 8-6. Earlier Ayob had caused the biggest upset of the tournament, defeating top seed Chen Hong of China 7-1, 8-6, 2-7, 8-6 on Thursday.