Basel: Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean continued their strong run at the Swiss Open on Friday with a 22-20, 21-16 win over seventh seeds Rachel Honderich/Kristen Tsai of Canada to set up an all-Malaysian semi-final against compatriots Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan.
The World No. 30 Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan moved fluently and played the cleaner badminton to wrap up a 21-11, 21-15 victory over the World No. 33 Amalie Magelund/Freja Ravn of Denmark in the quarter-finals.
In women’s singles, Carolina Marin from Spain continued her quest for the Swiss Open title on Friday with a captivating 21-13, 21-13 victory over Zhang Beiwen of the USA in 34 minutes. The top-seeded Marin will take on Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the semi-final.
The women’s singles second seed PV Sindhu was on course for a Swiss Open final clash with Marin as she beat No. 5 seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-16, 23-21 to battle No. 4 seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark next.
There were mixed results for the Malaysian squad in the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles event.
No. 5 seeds Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing bounced back from dropping the second set to beat Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Ashwini Ponnappa of India 21-17, 16-21, 21-18. They will play No. 6 seeds Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue of France next.
Gicquel/Delrue spoiled an all-Malaysian mixed doubles match-up in the semi-finals by defeating No. 4 seeds Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia 14-21, 21-14, 21-19.
Meanwhile, the mixed doubles No. 1 seeds, Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying suffered a shocking loss to Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Bøje of Denmark, going down 21-14, 19-21, 15-21 in 67 minutes.
In another women’s doubles semi-final, the No. 1 seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand will play No. 3 seeds Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria.
