Taiwanese badminton ace Chou Tien-chen was defeated in the semi-finals of the men’s singles at the Indonesia Masters yesterday by World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan.
The world No. 4 and fourth-seeded Chou fell to top seed Momota 21-19, 21-11 in 46 minutes on the resort island of in Bali, where the tournament is taking place in a bubble without fans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Momota extended his head-to-head record with Chou to 13-2.
Photo: AFP / Badminton Association of Indonesia
In the opening game, Momota edged to a four-point lead of 11-7 at the interval before Chou made a comeback to level the score at 17-17 by pocketing six of eight points.
Momota then found game point at 20-19, winning when Chou hit a shot wide.
The Japanese player was more aggressive in the second game and raced to an 11-4 lead at the interval.
Chou struggled to get back into position following Momota’s shots to the back of the court, which enabled the Japanese to feed off the pace.
Outstanding net play from Momota’s forehand side widened the score to 17-8 and he secured a match point opportunity at 20-10, with Chou saving the first, but conceding the second.
Momota today faces third-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the final after he beat unseeded Kidambi Srikanth of India 21-14, 21-9.
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
FRUSTRATION: Gauff smacked herself on the head with her racket before storming down the tunnel, emerging afterward to have a heated discussion with her coach Elina Svitolina on Saturday won the Italian Open after beating Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to claim her third Rome title, while Jannik Sinner set a date with Casper Ruud in the men’s final. Ukraine’s Svitolina had not claimed a WTA 1000 title since her last victory at the Foro Italico eight years ago, but prevailed over the ever-erratic Gauff to claim her 20th tournament triumph. Saturday’s win over Gauff was her third in a row against a player in the top four of the world rankings — including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina — ahead of the French
West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
RSS