El Monte: Men’s doubles top seeds Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe of Denmark made it to the last four of the US Open Grand Prix Gold tournament what was held at Los Angeles Badminton Club in El Monte, California on Friday.
The World No. 9 pair Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe eased past World No. 124 men’s pair Taiki Shimada/Yoshinori Takeuchi from Japan 21-16, 21-17 in the quarter-finals. Mogensen/Boe will face another Japanese pair Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko came through a 3-set thriller 21-18, 21-23, 23-21 victory against Tony Gunawan (USA)/Yoo Yong Sung (Korea) to reach the final four.
India’s Ajay Jayaram became the lone Indian survivor at the US Open after the No. 4 seed defeated compatriot Anand Pawar 21-11, 21-11 to advance to the semifinals of the men’s singles event of the USD 120,000 Grand Prix Gold tournament. Jayaram will play Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama for a spot in the final.
In women’s singles competition, No. 2 seed 24-year-old Michelle Li proved too strong for American shuttler No. 5 seed Zhang Beiwen by winning 21-14, 21-10 in 28 minutes to set up a semi-final meeting with Saena Kawakami of Japan after she downed France’s Delphine Lansac 19-21, 21-13, 21-12.
