Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying narrowly defeated Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi 22-20, 21-18 to reach the women’s semi-finals of the Japan Open badminton tournament in Tokyo yesterday
The 19-year-old will do battle today with Akane Yamaguchi, who trounced Yui Hashimoto 21-12, 21-16 in an all-Japanese encounter.
In yesterday’s other women’s quarter-finals at the US$200,000 tournament, the eighth leg of the 12-round World Superseries, fourth-seeded Wang Yihan breezed past fellow Chinese and fifth-seed Wang Shixian 21-17, 21-15 and now faces Japan’s Shizuka Uchida, who outlasted compatriot Minatsu Mitani 19-21, 21-13, 21-17.
In the men’s quarter-finals Malaysia’s world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei brushed aside Jun Takemura of Japan 21-10, 21-11 .
The top seed, going for a record fourth Japan Open men’s singles title, needed a little more than 30 minutes to book a semi-final clash with Nguyen Tien Minh.
The fifth-seeded Vietnamese beat Japan’s Kento Momota 21-18, 21-13 in another quarter-final.
China’s Gao Huan struggled to defeat Indian H.S. Prannoy 21-11, 20-22, 21-13 to set up the other semi-final clash with Japan’s seventh seeded Kenichi Tago, who crushed India’s K. Srikanth 21-18, 21-9.
The doubles top-seeds survived the quarter-final rounds.
In the men’s doubles, the top-seeded Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan crushed Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin of Taiwan 21-11, 21-17.
The second-seeds, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen beat fellow Danes Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding 21-16, 21-19.
The women’s top seeds, Ma Jin and Tang Jinhua, downed fellow Chinese Bao Yixin and Zhong Qianxin 21-15, 21-5, while second-seeded Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan defeated Hong Kong’s Poon Lok Yan and Tse Ying Suet 21-17, 21-15.
In the mixed doubles, China’s top-seeded Xu Chen and Ma Jin, second-seeded Chai Biao and Tang Jinhua, and un-seeded Liu Cheng and Bao Yixin reached the semi-finals.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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