Taiwanese badminton player Chou Tien-chen on Thursday progressed to the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open by sweeping his Chinese opponent in straight games in the men’s singles.
Fourth seed Chou booked his slot in the quarter-finals after a 21-15, 21-18 victory over world No. 27 Lu Guangzu in just 39 minutes in his round-of-16 match at Odense Sports Park.
At the start of the first game, Lu gained a 2-0 advantage before Chou found his form and reeled off eight consecutive points.
The Taiwanese maintained that lead and won the game 21-15.
At 14-14 in the second game, Chou lost the next three points. Adjusting his strategy, he then played at the net and created opportunities for powerful smashes to win the next six points and lead 20-17.
A wayward serve gave away a point to his Chinese opponent, but Lu hit the next return long for Chou to win the game 21-18.
Chou was due to face 25-year-old Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the quarter-finals.
In the mixed doubles, Taiwanese duo Lee Jhe-huei and Hsu Ya-ching rallied from a game down to defeat England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 17-21, 21-19, 21-14 in 53 minutes.
Lee and Hsu were due to face Thai second seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the quarter-finals.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier