Taiwanese badminton twins Lee Fang-jen and Lee Fang-chih on Friday created a stunning upset at the Madrid Spain Masters, defeating the world No. 1 pair to reach the men’s doubles semi-finals.
The world No. 53 Lee brothers beat Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 15-21, 22-20, 21-19 in the quarter-finals at the Polideportivo Municipal Gallur stadium in Madrid.
The score was close in the third game after they shared the first two. With the score locked at 19-19, the Lee brothers scored the next two points to hold off the Indonesians.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Alfian and Ardianto won the men’s doubles titles at the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships on March 19 and the Petronas Malaysia Open in January.
The Lee twins were to play compatriots Su Ching-heng and Ye Hong-wei in the semi-finals after press time last night.
Su and Ye advanced with a win over Japanese pair Shuntaro Mezaki and Haruya Nishida.
In the women’s singles, Carolina Marin of Spain beat Japan’s Nidaira Natsuki 21-16, 21-8 to book a semi-final against Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia, who eliminated Sweden’s Line Christophersen 21-10, 21-17. The other semi was to be played between Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min and P.V. Sindhu of India.
In the men’s singles, the semi-finalists were Kenta Nishimoto of Japan, Toma Junior Popov of France, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen and Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.
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