Odense: Women’s singles World No. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain had to dig deep to progress to the semi-finals of the Denmark Open on Friday eventually beating Sun Yu of China 21-19, 16-21, 27-25 in their quarter-final clash.
The Olympic gold medalist Carolina Marin reeled off 5 straight points from 16-21 to take the first set. But Marin seemed to conserve her energy by losing to Sun Yu who is 183cm tall. Marin then showed great resilience to pull back from a 6-14 deficit, especially her lucky net shot rolled over to Sun Yu’s side at 21-22 was definitely a strong boost of confidence for the Spaniard. Marin eventually roared back to beat Sun in a marathon 96 minutes match. After Marin clinched her match point, the crowd went wild while Marin was jumping up and down celebrating her tough victory.
Marin is heading to meet Akane Yamaguchi of Japan on Saturday. Yamaguchi recorded a 21-13, 21-14 victory against No. 3 seed Nozomi Okuhara on Friday.
Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan also survived a stern examination from No. 4 seed of Korea Sung Ji Hyun when the No. 5 seed Taiwanese needed 66 minutes to triumph 12-21, 25-23, 23-21 and reach the final four.
Tai is set to play Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong next.
In women’s doubles, No. 1 seeds Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi of Japan will play unseeded Puttita Supajirakul/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand on Saturday while No.3 seeds Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii of Indonesia will battle No. 2 seeds Jung Kyung Eun/Shin Seung Chan of Korea for a spot in the women’s doubles final.
