India’s Arvind Bhat became one of the casualties in the New Zealand Badminton Open semi-final due to the unreasonable playing arrangements, where players played quarter-finals and semi-finals all in one day.
The German Open champion lost to top-seeded Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals 21-14, 21-9 to Hsu in a 33-minute match.
In the first game, Arvind fought back from 2-5 to 6-6 but after they tied at 9-9, Hsu started to give Arvind the run for his money, and never look back after that.
Hsu dominated throughout the whole second set, where he could accumulated points 4-4, to 9-4 and then 16-5 as Arvind’s game crumbled.
“At 35 years old, I must admit my body doesn’t recover as fast as it used to. Playing two games in one day and that has taken a little out of me but this is still a very good tournament for me, I am very happy to make the semifinals.” said Arvind.
Hsu for his part is still feeling jaded in what is his 5th tournament in a row, not that you would know by the quality of his performances.
“My match play is fine, this is very good but physically I am still feeling a little tired after so many matches in 5 tournaments. Today was a good match for me because I was able to be at the net, this is my preferred game and it worked well for me today. Tomorrow will be fine, just one more match, I will try my best to win.”
In another men’s singles semi-final match, Wang Tzu Pei defeated Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif from Malaysia 21-14, 21-18
Semifinal Results
Men’s Singles
1 Jen Hao Hsu (TPE) def 5 Arvind Bhat (IND) 21-14,21-9; 6 Tzu Pei Wang (TPE) def 9 Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif (MAS) 21-14, 21-18
Women’s Singles
Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) def Ayume Mine (JPN) 21-13, 21-12; Kana Ito (JPN) def 2 Chi Ya Cheng (TPE) 21-13, 21-9
Men’s Doubles
Selvanus Geh/Kevin Sukamuljo (INA) def Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko (JPN) 23-21, 21-17; 2 Hung Ling Chen/Chia Pin Lu (TPE) def 8 Harianto Hardianto/Agripinna Prima Rahmanto (INA) 21-18, 21-14
Women’s Doubles
4 He Tian Tang/Renuga Veeran (AUS) def Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN) 21-17, 19-21, 21-18; Shizuka Matsuo/Mami Naito (JPN) def Szu Yu Chen/Chi Ya Cheng (TPE) 21-9, 21-10
Mixed Doubles
Alfian Eko Prasetya/Annisa Saufika (INA) def 5 Irfan Fadhilah/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (INA) 15-21, 21-13, 21-15; Edi Subaktiar/Melati Daeva Oklaviani (INA) def Po Jui Huang/Pei Ling Shuai (TPE) 21-7, 21-13
