China's top ranked badminton player and tournament's defending champion Chen Long suffered a stunning second round defeat to fall prey to Xue Song at the All England Championships on Thursday.

The current world No. 1 badminton player Chen became the second big name to exit the tourney in its early stages after world No. 2 and second seed of the competition Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia was eliminated in the first round a day earlier.

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Xue beat the Olympic bronze medalist and two-time world champion Chen with a 21-19, 21-17 win to advance to the quarterfinal round of the tournament.

"I have to say that top seeds losing early means that the general standard of men's singles is very high," Chen, who was the 2013 and 2015 winner of the annual prestigious badminton event, said. "I think that I am feeling well but I will have to go home and find out what went wrong today."

Xue is currently the 30^th best badminton singles player in the world rankings. He has played for a total of 115 matches with a record of 83 wins and 62 losses. He reached his career high in single as the world No. 17 on August 27, 2015 and has garnered a total of 37420 points.

"When we play on court we couldn't fully play out what we're capable as we know each other's game so well. I had all the luck," Xue, who was a close friend of Chen, said.

Meanwhile, in the other badminton match, current world No. 4 Lin Dan of China rallied past to beat the Japanese Sho Sasaki (world No. 20) from one set down to win 20-22, 21-6, 21-8 and advanced to the men's quarterfinals.

"It took me time to get into the match but I changed my tactics, stayed calm and I'm really happy to get through," Lin, who was a five-time champion and fifth-seeded in the tournament, said.

Lin will take on Denmark's world No. 5 Jan O Jorgensen, a finalist last year, while Xue will play No. 6 Danish Victor Axelsen.

TagsAll England Championships, xue song, Chen Long, bwf, BWF World rankings, Lee Chong Wei