Birmingham: Chan Peng Soo/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia continued the momentum that catapulted them to the victory against Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui of China on Thursday, though trailing 16-20 in the first set, the Malaysian pair reeled off four straight points forcing a deuce and subduing Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping of China to eventually claim the first set 23-21 in the All England quarter-finals on Friday.
Chan/Goh then dethroned a demoralized Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping pair in the second set, beating the Chinese pair 21-14. The No. 6 seeds Malaysian pair will take on unseeded Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan on Saturday.
Playing in front of a home crowd, England’s husband and wife pair and No. 7 seeds Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock were greeted by huge cheers as they stunned Rio Olympic champions and No. 2 seeds Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir 16-21, 21-19, 21-12 to set up semi-final clash with No. 5 seeds Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong of China.
In women’s singles, top seed Tai Tzu Ying dominated the quarter-finals match from the beginning to defeat India’s No. 6 seed P.V. Sindhu 21-14, 21-10 in 34 minutes.
Thailand’s No. 5 seed Ratchanok Intanon however had created an upset in Birmingham by defeating No. 2 seed and Olympic champion Carolina Marin 22-20, 13-21, 21-18 in 78 minutes.
Tai will play No. 3 seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea on Saturday while Intanon will face-off against No. 7 seed Akane Yamaguchi next.
