2015 Yonex-Sunrise HONG KONG Open SS : SEMIFINALS (21st November)

Author: CLELY

Discussion forum thread

Venue : Hong Kong Coliseum, Kowloon-HKG SAR

Total prize-money : US$350,000

Tournament website : http://www.hkopenbadminton.org/

Ticketing Information : http://www.hkopenbadminton.org/31-ticketing

BWF World Superseries website : http://bwfworldsuperseries.com/tourn…ong-open/?uc=1

BWF YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/bwf

Alternative streaming :
https://livestream.com/bwfbadminton
http://videostream.dn.ua/videopage/v…%96f%E2%84%96f

Hong Kong time : http://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wt…ma=Find%20Time

SEMIFINALS Order of Play (01.00pm local time, 1 court) : http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sp…239&d=20151121

The confident Lee eyes another Superseries title

Lee Chong Wei proved he’s the better man against two-time world Champion Chen Long yesterday. More setbacks for Chou Tien Chen and women’s doubles top-seed Matsutomo/Takahashi.

No seeded player survives past the quarterfinals as both top-seed and fifth seeds bit the dust yesterday. Once again, the world champion Chen Long lost to Lee Chong Wei for the second time in one week. Chen slipped up on his winning chance when leading 18-13 before Lee caught up and stole second game 21-19. The psychological advantage gave Lee a second wind to eliminate his lanky opponent. Another stellar comeback was seen with local player Angus Ng Ka Long disposing of Chou Tien Chen driving the home support into a frenzy. China’s last man standing, Tian Houwei will face Indonesian qualifier Anthony Ginting with an interesting tie between these two fast attacking players. At top-half draw, Lee CW is the overwhelming favourite against Angus Ng.

Both women’s singles semifinals are close affairs – top-seed Carolina Marin will up against former champion Wang Yihan and last year beaten finalist Nozomi Okuhara will face 2013 world champion Ratchanok Intanon. Each of them passed the quarterfinal stage relatively smoothly with only Intanon was forced to work extra hard at first game before eliminating Sayaka Sato.

The established men’s doubles pairs fulfill their seeding into last four, Korean favourite Lee YD/Yoo YS are favourites to overcome Chinese hurdle Chai B/Hong W and last year champion Ahsan/Setiawan will be tested by reigning All England champion Boe/Mogensen.  .

As expected, two Chinese women’s doubles combinations march on to semifinal, the Olympic Champion Tian Q/Zhao YL will take on Japanese second pair Fukuman/Yonao who surprised their illustrious teammates Matsutomo/Takahashi in three games. Asian Games gold medalist Maheswari/Polii once again has Chinese rival, Tang YT/Yu Y and they should take revenge over their two defeats in this year.

It’s China-Korea encounters for mixed doubles category, highly favourite Zhang/Zhao will get tricky test, Yoo/Chang who dumped Xu/Ma at last eight while Liu/Bao has promising duo Shin BC/Chae YJ. The underdog Korean pairs may deny all Chinese final script as Zhang/Zhao have been looking sluggish lately in their previous rounds.

LIVE TV (06.30pm local time) matches :

1) Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) v Ratchanok Intanon (THA)
2) Lee Chong Wei (MAS) v Angus Ng Ka Long (HKG)
3) Tang Yuanting/Yu Yang (CHN) v Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Gresyia Polii (INA)
4) Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (CHN) v Yoo Yeon Seong/Chang Ye Na (KOR)
5) Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (DEN) v Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA)