Taiwan’s World No. 2 Chou Tien-chen on Saturday crashed out of the men’s semi-finals at the Danisa Denmark Open, losing two straight games to World No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
The second-seeded Chou started off mixing defense and attack effectively, covering the court to hit some impressive angles, but began to fall apart in the second half of the first game, when the third-seeded Antonsen found his form.
The Dane did well playing backhand defense, while also bringing himself to play earlier at the net, forcing Chou to make errors.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Taiwanese shuttler showed some superb net play, delivering hard smashes going for the right hip of his opponent, giving Antonsen only split seconds to decide whether to play forehand defense or continue with the backhand, albeit awkward either way.
However, it was Antonsen’s sheer energy that showed he was ready to pounce early at the net every time, forcing Chou into making errors and giving the first game 17-21 to the Dane.
Chou seemed to lose his confidence in the second game as Antonsen dominated the net, hiking the score to 9-15, just six points away from wrapping up the match.
Although Chou tried to put up a fight, it proved futile against Antonsen’s clever play, which interchanged between body and angle smashes.
Chou eventually lost the match 15-21 in the second game.
The loss brought the pair’s head-to-head record to 7-2, with the Taiwanese ace still in the lead.
Chou’s defeat means that the men’s final this year would be an all-Danish affair, with Antonsen yesterday facing seventh-seeded, world No. 17 Rasmus Gemke.
Spearheading Taiwan’s campaign in the tournament, Chou had defeated Victor Svendsen of Denmark 21-16, 21-11; Nhat Nguyen of Ireland 21-18, 21-16; and Srikanth Kidambi of India 20-22, 21-13, 21-16.
The Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 750 Danisa Denmark Open, held from Tuesday last week to yesterday at the Odense Sports Park, carried a total purse of US$750,000.
The Denmark Open marked the return of international badminton after nearly all international tournaments were canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite