Basel: Malaysia’s men’s doubles shuttlers Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong have cruised to the 2015 Swiss Open semi-finals after defeating Japan’s Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko 23-21, 21-18 at the quarter-finals of Swiss Open on Friday.
In the match that lasted 39 minutes, the Malaysian duo rallied from an 18-20 deficit to win the first set at 23-21. There were six ties after the interval in the second set, and Tan/Goh responded with wave of attacks when the game was tied at 18-18, reeling off three points to eventually overcome the resilient Japanese pair by winning the set with 21-18.
Malaysia’s hopes of a semi-final berth in women’s doubles at the Swiss Open were shattered as Amelia Alicia Anscelly/Soong Fie Cho put up a good fight against second seeds Eefje Muskens/Selena Piek of Netherlands but eventually succumbed in three-set losing 15-21, 23-21, 6-21 in 51 minutes.
The biggest upset of the day came from Busanan Ongbumrungpan of Thailand, who shocked women’s singles No. 1 seed Wang Yihan of China in a one-sided match with 21-13, 21-15 in 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, men’s singles top seed Kidambi Srikanth also stormed into the semi-finals of the $120,000 tournament after a straight-game win over Takuma Ueda of Japan on Friday. Srikanth beat his eight seeded Japanese opponent 21-11, 21-12 in just 31 minutes. The world number four Indian led his opponent throughout the match and the Japanese never got any chance of a fight back at the St Jakobshalle stadium. Kidambi Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram will meet each other in an all-Indian semi-final.
