Taiwanese shuttler Lee Chia-hao on Friday defeated Kenta Nishimoto of Japan to advance to the semi-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships, his best performance in a BWF World Tour Super 1000 event.
World No. 22 Lee bested Nishimoto 21-9, 21-18 in the quarterfinals at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, England.
The Taiwanese shuttler started strong, leveling at 4-4 before stringing together consecutive points to win the first game.
Photo: Taipei Times
Despite falling behind 3-8 early in the second, Lee quickly regained his momentum, rallying to edge out Nishimoto and secure the match.
With the victory, Lee became the second Taiwanese male player to reach the All England Open men’s singles semi-finals, following Chou Tien-chen in 2017, 2020 and 2022.
World No. 9 Chou was this year knocked out in the round-of-16 with a 21-11, 21-19 loss to world No. 1 Shi Yuqi of China, is set to face France’s rising star Alex Lanier, fresh off his Orleans Masters title win last week.
Lanier advanced with a 21-19, 21-13 victory over Taiwan’s Wang Tzu-wei.
In other matches, Taiwanese men’s doubles pair Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan were ousted in the Birmingham tournament after losing 21-11, 20-22, 22-20 to Indonesians Bagas Maulana and Leo Rolly Carnando in the quarter-finals.
Taiwan’s Liu Kang-heng and Yang Po-han lost their men’s doubles quarter-final 21-11, 21-17 to the world No. 8 Indonesian pairing of Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani.
The All England Open Badminton Championships is being held from Tuesday to today.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was