Well, after the 1st set, I thought JOJ was finished, Srikanth seemed unstoppable but it wasn't to be. JOJ never gives up, does he. A good victory for JOJ to avoid playing Chen Long tomorrow.
Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin, the pairing is gradually maturing, still somewhat unpolished but improving nicely. Still some way to go for them to catch up with their illustrious seniors, Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei and Ma Jin/Xu Chen.
Damn! Srikanth was doing so well in the first set. He had my heart racing. But then his inexperience showed and JOJ began to read him. But it's OK. He still qualified,didn't he? When is the draw?
Semi Finals DRAW Men's Singles: Jan O Jorgensen (Denmark) vs Hans Kristian Vittinghus (Denmark); Chen Long (China) versus Kidambi Srikanth (India) Women's Singles: Saina Nehwal (India) versus Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei); Akane Yamaguchi (Japan) versus Sung Ji Hyun (Korea) Mixed Doubles: Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (China) versus Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock (England); Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin (China) versus Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen (Denmark) Men's Doubles Semi-finals: Chai Biao/Hong Wei (China) versus Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa (Japan); Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong (Korea) versus Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Denmark) Women's Doubles Semi-finals: Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (Japan) versus Luo Ying/Luo Yu (China); Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei (China) vs Jung Kyung Eun/Kim Ha Na (Korea) Source - https://www.facebook.com/bwfbadminton?fref=nf
SF Draws: MS JOJ vs HKV CL vs SK WS SN vs TZY AY vs SJH MD CB/HW vs Endo/Hayakawa Boe/Mogensen vs Lee/Yoo WD Luo/Luo vs MM/AT TQ/ZYL vs JKE/KHN XD ZN/ZYL vs Adcock/Adcock LC/BYX vs JFN/CP Only XD has repeat of the group stage matches. All other disciplines have cross-group SFs.
Tough task awaits Srikanth and Saina. Both Saina and Srikanth meet opponents they lost to at the recent Hong Kong SS.
Going to be very interesting to see how Chen Long copes with Srikanth. The team must have got a fair bit of footage by now to analyse Srikanth's game and potential areas of weakness. Srikanth's advantage is that he is still developing and therefore has some unpredictability that will make it difficult for Chen Long. Very exciting match in store. Saina versus Tai, I think it will go to Saina. Expect her to power her way past Tai and not to allow Tai to use any deception. Nevertheless, both players are on good form.