Taiwanese shuttler Lee Chia-hao on Friday defeated Kenta Nishimoto of Japan to advance to the semi-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships, his best performance in a BWF World Tour Super 1000 event.
World No. 22 Lee bested Nishimoto 21-9, 21-18 in the quarterfinals at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, England.
The Taiwanese shuttler started strong, leveling at 4-4 before stringing together consecutive points to win the first game.
Photo: Taipei Times
Despite falling behind 3-8 early in the second, Lee quickly regained his momentum, rallying to edge out Nishimoto and secure the match.
With the victory, Lee became the second Taiwanese male player to reach the All England Open men’s singles semi-finals, following Chou Tien-chen in 2017, 2020 and 2022.
World No. 9 Chou was this year knocked out in the round-of-16 with a 21-11, 21-19 loss to world No. 1 Shi Yuqi of China, is set to face France’s rising star Alex Lanier, fresh off his Orleans Masters title win last week.
Lanier advanced with a 21-19, 21-13 victory over Taiwan’s Wang Tzu-wei.
In other matches, Taiwanese men’s doubles pair Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan were ousted in the Birmingham tournament after losing 21-11, 20-22, 22-20 to Indonesians Bagas Maulana and Leo Rolly Carnando in the quarter-finals.
Taiwan’s Liu Kang-heng and Yang Po-han lost their men’s doubles quarter-final 21-11, 21-17 to the world No. 8 Indonesian pairing of Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani.
The All England Open Badminton Championships is being held from Tuesday to today.
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