Taipei: Independent shuttlers Mak Hee Chun and Chow Pak Chuu’s hopes of an semi-final berth was over after they suffered quarter finals exit at the Chinese Taipei Open with a straight sets defeat to Japan’s Hiroyuki Saeki-Ryota Taohata 21-16, 21-18 in 34 minutes.
Hee Chun and Pak Chuu opened the first set well before Saeki-Taohata levelled the score with 4-4. The Japanese then stepped up their tempo tearing Mak-Chow apart and never look back. The first set ended in just 14 minutes.
It was a tight match in the second set. The score was once tied at 4-4 and then 12-12. As the tight match progressed, Saeki-Taohata took control and flew by the Malaysian pair in straight sets. Saeki-Taohata will face-off against Andrei Adistia/Hendra Aprida Gunawan of Indonesia in tomorrow’s semi-final.
In men’s singles, Wei Nan of Hong Kong defeated the reigning US Open Champion Nguyen Tien Minh 16-21 22-20 21-15 in 61 minutes while the five time world champion Lin Dan of China breezed past Japan’s Thomas Cup hero Takuma Ueda 21-15, 21-10 in 43 minutes. Wei Nan will clash with China’s 2nd seed Wang Zhengming in the semi-final, while Lin Dan will take on unseeded Riichi Takeshita in another semi-final match up.
