The world number two Peter Gade from Denmark and Indonesia's fifth seed Taufik Hidayat both avoided second-round exit at the Badminton World Championships after beating their rivals in three sets on Wednesday.

Pi Hongyan representing France stole all the spotlights on the third competition day as the former Chinese player knocked out her first opponent Elena Prus of Ukraine in style.

Gade, 33, has predicted that his match with South Korean Shon Wan Ho in the second round would be a tough one as he won their previous two encounters both in three sets.

On Wednesday, Gade edged Shon 25-23 in the opening set but lost the following one quickly 21-7. In the deciding set, the experienced Dane was never dropped behind, sealing the victory 21-18.

Gade is going to scramble for a quarterfinal berth with Germany's 15th seed Marc Zwiebler.

Earlier, former world and Olympic champion Hidayat met strong challenges from the Beijing Olympic Games quarterfinalist Hsieh Yu-hsing from Chinese Taipei, losing the first game 21-19.

The 29-year-old Hidayat managed to lead the following game in 19-15, but was caught up to a tie of 19-19. When he grabbed two game points 20-19, He earned the key point with a seemingly outside ball.

Hsieh protested to the umpire in vain then faded in the following set 21-9.

Hidayat admitted that he was fortunate to win the second set so as the whole match.

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