Taiwanese badminton players Lin Xiao-min and Wang Yu-qiao on Friday defeated their Chinese counterparts to advance to the women’s doubles semi-finals at the German Open in Mulheim.
Teaming up for the first time this year, it took the 28-year-old Lin and 24-year-old Wang 41 minutes to beat Keng Shuliang and Li Huazhou 21-16, 21-19 in a quarter-final played at the Westenergie Sporthalle.
The world No. 68 Taiwanese shuttlers have not lost a game since the tournament opened earlier this week.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Liberty Times
Despite trailing early in the opening game on Friday, Lin and Wang quickly caught up to clinch several points to seize the lead.
Down 9-7 in the second game, they rebounded with eight consecutive points to lead 15-9 before closing out the match 21-19, staving off a fierce rally by their opponents.
Lin and Wang were yesterday after press time to face the world No. 63 pairing of Japan’s Mizuki Otake and Miyu Takahashi.
Lin and Wang are the only Taiwanese to make it to the semi-finals in Germany, after Taiwanese twins and fourth seeds Lee Fang-jen and Lee Fang-chih were defeated by another brother duo, France’s Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov, 21-17, 21-9 in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
Taiwan’s Chen Cheng-kuan and Lin Bing-wei were also ousted 21-11, 21-14 by top seeds Ben Lane and Sean Vendy of England in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, women’s singles third seed Sung Shuo-yun of Taiwan on Thursday crashed out in the round-of-16 after a devastating 21-17, 21-17 loss to Japan’s Riko Gunji.
World No. 20 Sung in January made it to the semi-finals of the Indonesia Masters, tying her best result at the Super 500 event.
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