Taiwanese badminton players Chou Tien-chen and Lin Chun-yi on Friday defeated their respective opponents to advance to the men’s singles semi-finals at the Yonex Swiss Open in Basel.
The 34-year-old Chou, ranked No. 15 in the world, bested Priyanshu Rajawat of India 21-15, 21-19 in 43 minutes at the St Jakobshalle arena.
Chou and Rajawat, who were going head-to-head for the first time, exchanged the lead several times early in the opening game, but Chou pulled ahead with five consecutive points to lead 13-9 at the mid-point interval.
Taiwan’s top male shuttler continued his aggressive play and retained the comfortable lead to seal the first game.
However, he found himself in trouble early in the second game when the 22-year-old Rajawat surged into a 9-4 lead at the interval.
However, a string of unforced errors by the Indian shuttler allowed Chou to close the gap and then steam ahead to seal the victory.
Chou was to play Dane Rasmus Gemke in the semis after press time last night.
Also on Friday, world No. 22 Lin defeated Magnus Johannsen of Denmark 21-18, 21-7 to advance.
His next opponent was to be Srikanth Kidambi of India.
Other Taiwanese who also reached the semi-finals in Switzerland were women’s doubles pair Hsu Ya-ching and Lin Wan-ching, and Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin in the mixed doubles.
Hsu and Lin Wan-ching beat Japanese pair Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi 21-17, 17-21, 21-13 and were to play Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu of Australia, while Ye and Lee defeated Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi of China 21-18, 16-21, 21-19 to earn a semi against Malaysian pair Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei.
At the Ruichang China Masters, Taiwan’s Chiu Pin-chian beat Dai Wang of China 21-13, 23-25, 23-21 in the women’s singles to earn a spot in the final today against Japan’s Kaoru Sugiyama.
Chiang Chien-wei and Wu Hsuan-yi defeated Cui Hechen and Peng Jianqin of China 21-16, 21-17 to make the men’s doubles final against Tan Qiang and Zhou Haodong of China, who eliminated Taiwan’s Lin Bing-wei and Su Ching-heng with a 21-12, 21-17 win.
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