Bilbao: Malaysia’s No. 2 seed Lee Zii Jia suffered a shocking 21-19, 21-18 defeat by No. 14 seed Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia in the boys’ singles semi-finals of World Junior Championships held in Bilbao, Spain on Saturday.
Lee was a little sluggish in the first set which saw him trailing most of the first set to go down 21-19. He show his resilience in the second set, but Wardoyo looked fearsome at 16-18 that the Indonesian reeled off 5 consecutive points to claim the second set 21-18.
Wardoyo will clash with No. 5 seed Sun Feixiang of China in the boys’ singles final on Sunday.
Sun, on the other hand, also pulled off a huge upset today against No. 1 seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand. Wangcharoen who has yet to lose a game in the tournament, was suddenly vulnerable to Sun in the semi-finals, where Wangcharoen couldn’t find an answer to Sun’s trick shots and lost 9-21, 13-21 in the end.
18-year-old Chen Yufei of China was also unstoppable in the girls’ singles semi-finals. She was showing strong signs that she was on track to win her first World Junior Championships title when she steamrolled her way past Kim Ga-eun of South Korea with a 21-12, 21-17 victory in 39 minutes.
The No. 2 seed Chen Yufei will play Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand for the girls’ singles title. Chochuwong survived a brutal examination against Japanese player Natsuki Oie before emerged victorious in straight sets with 27-25, 21-19.
China who beat Malaysia to retain the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships title last Sunday, have a very good chance of sweeping all five individual World Junior titles on Sunday where their No. 1 boys’ doubles pair Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong also advanced to the finals by beating Thailand’s No. 3 seeds Pakin Kuna-Anuvit and Natthapat Trinkajee 21-15, 21-12 in only 23 minutes.
Han/Zhou are set to play unseeded South Korean pair Lee Hong-Sub and Lim Su-Min who fought their ways back from the brink of World Junior elimination by beating the No. 13 seeds Fan Qiuyue/Ren Xiangyu of China 21-15, 17-21, 22-20 in 68 minutes.
No. 1 and No. 2 seeds of girls’ doubles will be locking horns in the final after both China’s top ranked duo Du Yue and Xu Ya and second seeds Sayaka Hobara and Nami Matsuyama defeated their respective opponents in the semi-finals on Saturday.
China already guaranteed a gold in the mixed doubles event when the No. 1 seeds He Jingting/Du Yue will meet compatriots No. 7 seeds Shou Haodong/Hu Yuxiang for the mixed doubles crown. He/Du needed only 27 minutes to ease past Tang Jie Chen and Ee Wei Toh of Malaysia 21-14, 21-11 in the semi-finals, while Shou/Hu overcame South Koreans Kyung Hoon Park and Hye Jeong Kim, 21-17, 21-18 in 41 minutes.
