LONDON, March 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Lin Dan led seven Asian men players to head into Friday's quarterfinals of the All England Open badminton championships, leaving Dane Kenneth Jonassen the last European in the last eight.

The title holder and world champion Lin beat qualifier Simon Santoso 21-14, 21-18 to set up a quarterfinal clash against another Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro en route to chase his third All England title.

Four Europeans started the second day at the worlds oldest badminton tournament but only one was still standing by the end of Thursday.

Jonassen booked his quarterfinal place with a 21-16, 18-21, 21-17 win over South Korean Park Sung-hwan in over an hour, the longest match of the men's second round.

He will meet second-seeded Chen Jin of China, who put out Wei NG of Hong Kong, China 21-17, 21-18.

Besides Lin and Chen Jin, another two Chinese, world silver medalist Bao Chunlai and Chen Yu, also made it through to the quarters.

On the women's part, Xie Xingfang and Zhang Ning were on course to repeat the last two women's singles finals, with China bidding to become the first nation to lift all five titles.

Malaysian Open winner Peter Gade and Olympic and former world champion Taufik Hidayat had skipped the tournament.