Incheon: World number one Lee Chong Wei swept past reigning Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap Parupalli of India in the last 16 match 21-12, 21-11 on Friday. Lee needed just 34 minutes to clinch the match. He will set up a quarter-final match against Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh, who defeated Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia 21-9, 21-13 in another round of 16 match.
As for Lin Dan, he completed an amazing comeback in the second set when he was trailing 13-20. He fought his way back from an impossible looking 8 points deficit to defeat Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-16, 22-20. His compatriot Chen Long also booked his quarter-final spot with a 21-19 21-6 rout of Japan’s Kento Momota.
“I was getting ready to play the third set, however, I tried not to give up the second game that easily,” Lin Dan talked about the second set after the match.
Lin Dan will play Kenichi Tago in the quarter-finals, while Chen Long will try to seek revenge against Son Wan-ho tomorrow. Son defeated Chen Long at the final of men’s team event three days ago.
In the women’s singles, Tai Tzu Ying faces the formidable task of getting past Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China in the semi-finals as she has never beaten her in eight encounters. Tai defeated Sung Ji Hyun of Korea 21-14 9-21 21-17 in the quarter final, while Li dismissed Indonesia’s Bellaetrix Manuputty 21-9 21-19 in just half-an-hour in her quarter-final.
Another home favorite, Bae Yeon Ju, made up for her compatriot’s loss by booking her semi-final place. Bae improved her record over Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon to 3-1 with a 21-4 18-21 21-8 victory, which gave her a date with No.2 seed Wang Yihan of China. Wang ran into stiff resistance early on from India’s Saina Nehwal, but found her rhythm as the match progressed and knocked off the Indian player in a hard fought 18-21 21-9 21-7 match.
