China secures two women's singles semifinal spots at All England Open Badminton Championships
LONDON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- China's Wang Zhiyi and Chen Yufei defeated their respective opponents to reach the women's singles semifinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Friday.
World No. 3 Chen only needed 51 minutes to beat Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand 23-21, 21-11.
"My strategy is patience," said the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, who suffered a quarterfinal exit in last year's tournament. "I always tell myself, 'you can do it, you need to trust yourself,' so I kept my patience and won the first game."
Chen will face top-seed An Se-young of South Korea in the semifinal, which will be their first showdown this year, with the two players having split their previous 28 encounters at 14 wins apiece.
"I am very happy to enter the semifinal, but it will be a difficult match tomorrow. So I need to prepare more," Chen added.
Wang advanced to the semifinals by defeating Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki 21-13, 8-21, 21-16. The second seed will take on Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semifinal.
In the men's singles event, India's Lakshya Sen, who upset top seed Shi Yuqi of China in the first round, continued his fine form by beating another Chinese Li Shifeng 21-13, 21-16.
China's Chen Boyang/Liu Yi, men's doubles runners-up at the 2025 World Championships, defeated Indonesian pair Muhammad Rian Ardianto/Rahmat Hidayat 21-16, 21-10. Another Chinese pair Liang Weikeng/Wang Chang lost 21-18, 21-12 to Indonesian duo Raymond Indra/Nikolaus Joaquin.
China's top seeds Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning and third seeds Jia Yifan/Zhang Shuxian set up their women's doubles semifinal clash after defeating respective opponents.
In the mixed doubles event, Chinese pair Guo Xinwa/Chen Fanghui fought hard through three games to beat Indonesia's Amri Syahnawi/Nita Violina Marwah 21-17, 18-21, 21-15, advancing to the semifinals. Second seeds Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin lost 21-16, 21-16 to French pair Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue. ■
