World No. 5 Chen suffers first round exit at badminton worlds

World No. 5 Chen Long from China was ousted from the Badminton World Championships as he lost to Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon in the men's singles opening round on Monday.

Chen, 22, played his first world champoinships at Wembley Arena where will stage the Olympic badminton competition next year. He lost the opening game 21-19, but managed to pull one back in 21-8.

In the deciding game, Chen and the world No. 36 Cordon fought hard but the Chinese finally lost in 27-25.

"After all, it's the first time that I played at world championships," said Chen with a bitter smile on his face. "Of course I want to win, but my opponent played really well today."

It's the second time that Cordon met a player from China as he was beaten by Bao Chunlai in the second round at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

"It's definitely the best victory in my life," said Cordon. "He is one of the best players in the world."

Bao, 28, was excluded from the world championships squad as the veteran is not as competitive as before.

Cordon admitted that he was quite nervous when he got one match point in hand. "I didn't know what to do, but I thought I had to play more attacking."

Cordon will wait for the winner between Carl Baxter from England and Henri Hurskainen of Sweden.