New Delhi: Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu continued his stunning run in the India Open 2024 badminton tournament by upsetting Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Anthony Ginting of Indonesia in the quarterfinals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Lee, who had defeated India’s Kidambi Srikanth and defending champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the earlier rounds, toppled fourth seed Ginting 21-17, 18-21, 21-13 to set up a semi-final encounter against second seed Kodai Naraoka in this Super 750 tournament being organized by Badminton Association of India.
In the day’s other matches, second seed An-Se Young’s title defence came to an unfortunate end as she had to retire due to injury, handing Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min her first semi-finals berth at the India Open.
Jia Min will face Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who prevailed against two-time World Championships bronze medallist He Bing Jiao of China 21-12, 21-12.
But it was Lee who stole the show with another resilient display against the fast-paced Ginting.
Trailing 7-9 in the opening game, Lee swiftly turned the tide by accumulating five consecutive points to establish a 12-9 lead and maintained the momentum to claim the first game.
The second game saw a spirited fight from Ginting, who fought back from 11-13 to seize a 19-14 lead. Despite Lee’s efforts to narrow the gap to 18-19, the Indonesian closed out the second game with a well-executed drop shot.
Ginting started the decider by winning a 24-shot rally to open up a two-point advantage at 3-1. However, Lee wrested the initiative with five successive points from 10-10 and was unstoppable thereafter.
Elsewhere, former World Champions Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand clinched a 21-17, 15-21, 27-25 victory over defending champions Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan in the mixed doubles quarterfinals.
–IANS