Eriko Hirose, the unseeded home hope who eliminated fourth seed Bae Yeon-ju of South Korea on Friday, pulled off another upset by beating sixth seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand 21-19, 21-13, yesterday to set up a women’s final against Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying in badminton’s Japan Open.
“I’ve never beaten her before, so I’m really happy to win today. My goal is to win a title in the Superseries. I have one more match to go. I’m going to concentrate on each point to win the title,” Hirose said.
Tai, the fifth seed, defeated second-seeded Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea 16-21, 21-13, 21-17.
Photo: AFP
In the men’s final, Lee Chong Wei will meet Thailand’s unseeded Boonsak Ponsana after the two-time champion breezed past Simon Santoso.
The top seed and Olympic silver medalist, winner in Japan in 2007 and 2010, needed just over 30 minutes to see off the third seed 21-7, 21-17 in a one-sided semi-final.
“Simon seemed not to play his best. He made too many mistakes, especially in the first game, so I just needed to play my game,” said Lee, 29, of Malaysia. “My next opponent tomorrow is also a veteran player. Currently, me and Lin Dan are leading the world, but I’m sure younger players will be coming up very soon.”
“I was completely beaten today,” Indonesia’s Santoso said. “I can read the course of his shuttle, but he was much more speedy and powerful. Hopefully, I can beat Lee and Lin Dan and win a big tournament like this.”
Lin, along with the rest of the China team, is not in Tokyo after they boycotted the tournament over a diplomatic wrangle.
Boonsak set up today’s showdown with Lee after he defeated the unseeded Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-17, 17-21, 21-19.
“It was really tough. I’m very tired,” Boonsak said. “I attacked very well in the first game and put a lot of pressure on him, but I rushed too much to attack in the second game. In the final game, I tried to make a chance to attack. I was confident to beat him.”
Reflecting on his final opponent, the unseeded Boonsak said: “He plays very fast and controls the game very well. It will be very difficult. I lost to him many times, but I defeated him twice before. I will do my best.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but