Lin, Xie advance at Singapore Open

China's Lin Dan returns a shot to Hong Kong's Chan Yan Kit during the preliminary round of the men's singles at the Singapore Open Badminton Super Series 2007 in Singapore May 2, 2007.Top seed Lin Dan of China and his girlfriend Xie Xingfang both survived a three-set thriller to advance in the ongoing badminton Aviva Open in Singapore.

Lin Dan, the current world number one shuttler, took on lower ranked Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong in the men's singles first round.

Hindered by a waist injury, it took Lin 50 minutes to win the full-set marathon battle 21-18, 13-21, 21-15.

The All-England Champion will next play Indonesian Simon Santoso.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Chinese Chen Jin eased to the second round with a 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) win over German player Bjoern Joppien.

In the women's pool, Lin Dan's girlfriend Xie Xingfang struggled to defeat Finnish Anu Nieminen 21-16, 18-21, 21-8.

The top seed sets up a second round clash with Sara Persson of Sweden.

Chinese veteran Zhang Ning also advanced to the next stage after winning 21-19, 21-11 over Bulgarian Petya Nedeltcheva.