TOKYO: Malaysia’s world number-one Lee Chong Wei brushed aside Jun Takemura of Japan 21-10, 21-11 to reach the semi-finals of the Japan Open badminton tournament in Tokyo yesterday.
The 30-year-old 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 today.
The fifth-seeded Vietnamese whipped Japan’s Kento Momota 21-18, 21-13 in another quarter-final.
China’s Gao Huan struggled in beating 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.
Tago crushed India’s K. Srikanth 21-18, 21-9.
In the women’s quarter-finals of the $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.
Wang Yihan will now face Japan’s Shizuka Uchida who outlasted compatriot Minatsu Mitani 19-21, 21-13, 21-17 in the last-eight round.
Akane Yamaguchi trounced Yui Hashimoto 21-12, 21-16 in another all-Japanese quarter-final.
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu Ying meanwhile narrowly defeated Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi 22-20, 21-18 and will do battle with Yamaguchi for a place in the final.
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, beat fellow Chinese Bao Yixin and Zhong Qianxin 21-15, 21-5.
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. AFP
