Birmingham: Top seeded men’s singles player Kento Momota of Japan delivered an excellent performance to beat No. 7 seed Kidambi Srikanth 21-12, 21-16 in the All England quarter-finals on Friday.
Momota who is targeting his first All England title, will face Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong next.
In a match which ended 21-14, 21-7, the men’s singles defending champion Shi Yuqi also reached the semi-finals for a third straight year, after easing past Kanta Tsuneyama who defeated Lin Dan in the first round. Shi will battle Viktor Axelsen of Denmark on Saturday for a spot in the final.
Axelsen, on the other hand, was pushed till the very end of first set by compatriot Jan Jorgensen, saving a set-point to escape 23-21. Axelsen has been leading most of the second set to eventually beat Jorgensen 21-18.
In women’s singles, No. 1 seed Tai Tzu-Ying of Taiwan was showing off her magic touches and jaw-dropping strokes that would leave her opponent – Saina Nehwal stranded. Tai’s deceptions were able to trick Nehwal several times to eventually beat the Indian shuttler 21-15, 21-19 in 38 minutes.
Tai who is eyeing for her third consecutive All England title, will next play No. 4 seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
Another women’s singles semi-final clash will be between No. 3 seed Chen Yufei and No. 2 seed Nozomi Okuhara.
