Li Han shows the exit to error-prone Ratchanok
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Li Han of China knocked out World No 4 Ratchanok Intanon ot Thailand 21-14 21-12 in the quarter-finals of the Que Singapore Open.
Ratchanok, who beat her opponent in their last three meetings, started slowly before raising the level of her game to take an 11-10 lead. However, she made a plethora of unforced errors to drop the opening game in just 15 minutes.
The second game was a sea-saw affair with the players 11-all at one stage. Ratchanok continued making unforced errors and never recovered from then on.
Meanwhile, women’s top seed and Olympic champion Li Xuerui went past Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying in straight games, in a far more convincing display than her three-game struggle against Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in round two.
Li won 21-10 21-13 in 27 minutes to stay on course for a repeat of last year’s final with defending champion and fellow Chinese Wang Yihan, who downed India’s eighth seed PV Sindhu 21-19, 21-15.
Trick-shot Lee romps
World No 1 Lee Chong Wei turned on the style and even had time to attempt a trick shot as he sped into the Singapore Open semi-finals.
The Malaysian took just 29 minutes to demolish Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-8 21-14 in breathtaking fashion, at one point even trying a shot from underneath his leg which fell short of the net.
It was exhibition stuff from Lee, who is the tournament’s red-hot favourite after three of the top four seeds were late withdrawals, drastically weakening the men’s singles field.
Tanongsak beat Japanese eighth seed Kento Momota in the first round but the gulf in class was clear during Friday’s quarter-final against the confident and ruthless Lee.
Yesterday, Lee was to meet India’s K Srikanth, who beat Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 17-21 21-14 21-19 – after upsetting seventh seed Nguyen Tien Minh a round earlier – for a place in the semi-finals.
In the other men’s semi, Indonesian qualifier Simon Santoso was to face Chinese fifth seed Du Pengyu for a place in the final.
Meanwhile in the World Junior Mixed Team Championship, Thailand narrowly went down to Indonesia 3-2 in the semi-finals on Thursday. Thailand had to settle for the bronze medal, a position they achieved in the 2011 meet in Taiwan.
