World number one Lee loses out to China's Bao

MADRID, Sep 22 (Reuters) Top seed and world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia tumbled out of the world championships today, losing a fiery quarter-final in controversial circumstances to China's Bao Chunlai.

World number eight Bao clinched his place in the final four 22-20 12-21 21-18, but Lee was outraged by two disputed line calls and accused Chinese head coach Lee Yong Bo of threatening him while he was on court.

''I don't want to fight about it now,'' the Malaysian told reporters.

''But as far as I saw it the shuttlecock was out on two crucial points. I don't think the decisions were fair. It was 50-50 out there and I could have won, although Bao played very well.

''The Chinese coach shouted at me during the match and threatened to break my legs. He was using psychological pressure to upset me.'' Lee was on top during the opening exchanges, but Bao mounted a determined fightback and eventually took the first game.

The Malaysian stepped up a gear to take the second comfortably, but with the decisive game balanced on a knife edge at 17-all, a disputed line-call gave Bao the edge.

Another borderline call gave Bao a match-point and although Lee saved one, he eventually succumbed to the Chinese.

''I'm the world number one and maybe the pressure of trying to become the first Malaysian to win the worlds got to me,'' said Lee.

Bao said that the fact that Lee had beaten him in their previous meetings meant he had nothing to lose.

''I felt very calm and balanced,'' he said. ''I learned a lot from this match.'' Bao, who won the Korean Open last month, will face the winner of the match between China's Chen Jin and Lee Hyun-il of South Korea.

In the women's singles top seed and world number one Zhang Ning had to come from a game down to win through against England's Commonwealth Games gold medalist Tracey Hallam 20-22 21-10 21-10.

Hallam caused Zhang some early problems, but the Chinese proved too strong for the left-hander and won the second and third games by a comfortable margin and remains on course to regain the title she won in 2003.

Germany's Xu Huaiwen, who won bronze in last year's world championships in Anaheim, ensured herself a medal with a 21-14 17-21 21-16 win over Petya Nedeltcheva of Bulgaria.

Reuters PM VV1925