Bali: Denmark’s Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, Viktor Axelsen’s quest to win his first Indonesia Open continues, when he saw off India’s Sai B. Praneeth 21-12, 21-8 in the Indonesia Open quarter-finals on Friday.
The World No. 2 from Denmark has never won the Indonesia Open, despite advancing to the 2018 final. He finished runner-up in the 2018 edition after losing to Kento Momota 14–21, 9–21.
Axelsen will take on World No. 8 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the semi-finals.
After beating World No. 1 Kento Momota in the Indonesia Open second round, Singapore’s World No. 26 Loh Kean Yew played sublimely to beat the World No. 21 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Demark in a one-sided quarter-final match, 21-9, 21-4, on Friday.
“It was not as easy as it looked, and I’ll get ready to face Gemke tomorrow,” said Loh.
Loh will meet another Dane, the World No. 13 Rasmus Gemke for a spot in the final.
In women’s singles, Thailand’s No. 5 seed, Pornpawee Chochuwong pulled off a huge upset to down No. 1 seed Akane Yamaguchi 21-6, 21-23, 21-11 in 72 minutes.
“It’s an extremely difficult match. I gave it all. After this match, I want to focus on the semi-finals,” said Chochuwong.
“I had a hard time in the second game, but in the third game I was able to follow my game plan very well,” added Chochuwong.
Chochuwong will take on No. 4 seed An Seyoung of Korea on Saturday.
“Facing An Se Young is another tough challenge for me. Now I want to focus on restoring my energy and my mental strength,” explained Chochuwong.
In the bottom half of the women’s draw, No. 3 seed P. V. Sindhu of India and No. 2 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand won the tickets to the semi-finals respectively.
Sindhu, defeated Sim Yu Jin of Korea 14-21, 21-19, 21-14 while Intanon overcame Asuka Takahashi of Japan 21-17, 21-12 on Friday.
