Odense: Denmark’s top men’s singles Jan Jorgensen lost his quarter-final to Parupalli Kashyap on Friday.
Having won four of their previous five meetings, Jorgensen would have been confident going into the quarter-final clash against Kashyap in Odense. However, Jorgensen seemed a little rusty and often make unforced errors, allowing unheralded Kashyap to progress 21-19 21-15 in 42 minutes. Kashyap will face Chen Long of China in the semi-final. Chen managed to swept past Frenchman Brice Leverdez 21-9 21-7 in 37 minutes.
Tian Houwei of China is the other competitor in the semi-final after the Chinese moved past Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 21-12 21-19. Tian will clash with South Korea’s Son Wan-ho on Saturday.
In women’s singles, defending champion Wang Yihan remains on course to defend her title by dispatching compatriot Liu Xin 21-12 21-17. She will meet another Chinese player – second seed Wang Shixian after the world number two edged past Saina Nehwal of India 22-20 21-15 in 45 minutes.
Women’s singles top seed Li Xuerui came from a game down to see off American Zhang Beiwen 15-21 21-15 21-12 while Sung Ji-hyun was too strong for Pusarla Venkata Sindhu of India having come through a stern test to progress 25-23 22-20.
In men’s doubles, Denmark’s Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen overcame Chai Biao and Hong Wei of China 16-21 21-18 21-15 to play number one seed Lee Yong Dae-Yoo Yeon Seong of Korea in the semi-final. Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan of China defeated former world champion Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 17-21 21-19 21-11 and will take on reigning world champion Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Choel tomorrow.
Here are other semi-final matches on Saturday:
Women’s doubles:
Ma Jin Ma-Tang Yuanting (China) vs Wang Xiaoli-Yu Yang (China)
Reika Kakiiwa-Miyuki Maeda (Japan) vs Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi (Japan)
Mixed Doubles:
Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir (Indonesia) vs Riky Widianto-Puspita Richi Dili (Indonesia)
Liu Cheng-Bao Yixin Bao (China) vs Xu Chen-Ma Jin (China)