Vantaa: China’s Tokyo Olympics mixed doubles gold medalists, Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping entered the 2021 Sudirman Cup quarter-finals against Denmark on Friday when both the Asian and European badminton powerhouses were tied at 2-2.
After helping their team to emerge Group A champions on Wednesday by scoring the third point for China, World No. 2 Wang/Huang rescued their team again on Friday by beating World No. 16 Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Boje 21-18, 21-12 in the deciding match to carry China over Denmark with 3-2 overall score.
In the men’s doubles match that kicked off the proceeding, He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong squandered a huge 8-2, 16-11, and 19-16 lead in the decider to go down to Anders Skaarup Rasmussen/Frederik Søgaard of Denmark 21-17, 16-21, 19-21 in 87 minutes.
The Tokyo Olympics women’s singles gold medalist – Chen Yu Fei was made to work by Mia Blichfeldt before leveling the score at 1-1 by beating Blichfeldt 18-21, 21-8, 21-17.
China’s World No. 10 Shi Yuqi of China was desperately trying to score a point for his team against Denmark’s Tokyo Olympics men’s singles gold medalist – Viktor Axelsen. However, Shi let pressure got to him, making a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes to go down to the Dane 17-21, 14-21.
Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan of China got the situation under control by overcoming Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen 21-10, 21-13 and let Wang/Huang handle the rest in the mixed doubles match.
The tie between Korea and Thailand was also extremely intense. After 2-2, Jongkolphan Kititharakultha/Sapsiree Taerattanachai attempted an extraordinary comeback in the women’s doubles match when they scored seven consecutive points in the third set, coming from 11-19 to narrow the gap at 18-19. However, a service error from Taerattanachai when they were trailing 19-20 gave Lee Sohee/Shin Seungchan a huge relief, allowing the Koreans to run away with a 21-11, 17-21, 21-19 victory in the fifth match and advanced to the 2021 Sudirman Cup semi-finals.
Korea will face China in the semi-finals, while Malaysia will take on Japan in another last-four match-up on Saturday.
