China Open – Saina and Chen Long enter semis

It was a warm and wet morning in Fuzhou, China. The players were ready to go all guns blazing into the Quarter Finals in the 25th edition of the China Open Super Series, held at Haixia Olympic Sports Centre in Fuzhou. The tension levels were high, due to the pressure on the players to grab the spots for the automatic qualification to the 2016 Rio Olympics. The China Open was the second last Super series before the destination Dubai BWF World Super Series Finals.

The day started with the top seed in the Men’s Singles Chen Long from China taking on the young Dane Viktor Axelsen. It was a disappointing performance from Victor who lost 21-17 21-13 to make it 7 consecutive losses for him against the current World No.1. It was a tough match for Son Wan Ho, who won his match against the young qualifier Shin Yuqi from China in three tough games. The former World No.1 Lee Chong Wei defeated 2nd seed Jan Jorgensen from Denmark to set up a mouth watering CLASSICO against Lin Dan in the Semi Finals.

In the Women’s Singles, all eyes were on last year’s champion and the first seed Saina Nehwal, who booked her place in the SF after defeating N.Okuhara from Japan 21-16 21-13. She’ll be meeting Wang Yihan from China who defeated 4th seeded  Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei in straight sets. In other matches, 2nd seed and current World Champion suffered an early defeat as she lost to Wang Shixian from China 21-13 10-21 21-10. She’ll face Li Xuerei in the Semis.

In the mixed doubles, the first seed Zhang Nan and Zhao Yun Lei won their match against Jordan and Susanto in three tough games . They’ll face off MA Jin and Xu Chen, their old rivals in the semis. In other matches, the Danish pairing of Joachim Fischer and Christinna won their match in straight sets to set up a clash against the 4th seeded Liu and Bao from China.

In the Men’s Doubles, it was an easy win for the 6th seeds Chai Biao and Hong Wei from China who defeated Hashimoto and Hirata from Japan in straight sets 21-16 21-11 . No.5 seeds Endo and Hayakawa also booked their place in the semis with an easy win over the Chinese pairing of Wang and Zhang. In other matches, the upset of the day was when the Korean pair of Kim and Kim defeated Olympic Silver Medalists and 4th seeds from Denmark Boe and Mogensen in three tough games.

In the Women’s Doubles, it was an comfortable win for the first seeds Matsutomo and Takahashi who defeated Ancessely and Soong from Malaysia in straight sets 21-17 21-12. In other matches, 3rd seed Danish pair of Pedersen and Juhl lost to the Korean pair of Chang and Lee in straight sets.

After an exciting day of thrills and spills, we hope the Semi finals will have plenty more to offer. It was a disappointing day for Danish badminton fans as their top player suffered defeat in the QF round of the Super Series. There are some great matches lined up for tomorrow, but all eyes will be on Lee Chong Wei vs Lin Dan. There will be many fireworks tomorrow, so stay tuned and KEEP SMASHING.