ODENSE, Denmark, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Sixth seeded Juliane Schenk of Germany caused a huge upset beating second seed Li Xuerui of China, who won gold at the London Olympics, in two sets 21-19, 21-12 here on Friday at the Denmark Open badminton tournament.
In a physically strong, concentrated display, the German held the lead in a close first set and wrapped up the match as Li faded in the second set.
The other top seeds had progressed from the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open 2012, a 400,000 U.S. dollars Super Series badminton tournament held here in central Denmark on Friday.
Men's top seed Chong Wei Lee of Malaysia took just 31 minutes to beat unseeded compatriot Daren Liew 21-16, 21-16. Meanwhile.
Second seeded Chen Long of China wrapped-up his duel with Indonesia's unseeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro in 41 minutes, winning 21-8, 21-15.
In all, three of the original eight men's seeds go into the semifinals after the men's field saw a number of shock upsets through the first and second rounds.
The women's singles saw major changes after all eight top seeds had earlier qualified for the quarterfinals. China's Wang Yihan, seeded first, was stretched by South Korea's Ji Hyung Sung before beating her in three sets 21-13, 16-21, 21-8.
In the double's events, the standout performance was by men's top seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark, who beat seventh seeded Ki Jung Kim and Sa Rang Kim of South Korea, winning 24-22, 22-20 in a close-fought game lasting 53 minutes.
The Danish pair, who won silver at the London Olympics, closed a tense first set with three set-point wins, before overcoming strong defense by the South Korean pair to wrap up the match.
Women's doubles top seeds Tian Qing and Tian Yunlei of China, and mixed doubles top seeds Xu Chen and Ma Jin of China comfortably held-off their Japanese and Polish opponents, respectively, to progress to the semifinal round.