Basel: The men’s singles No. 1 seed Lin Dan of China is back in the Swiss Open semi-finals on Friday, the tournament he had won in 2004 and 2008.
Lin was struggling to move fluently against Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia in the first set. The two-time Olympic champion had to rely on his experience to slowly claw his way back from 10-14 to surge ahead and took the first set 21-17. The second set was surprisingly one-sided with the Chinese star winning 21-14. Lin who also known as “Super Dan” will play another Indonesian player Anthony Sinisuka Ginting on Saturday.
Second seed Shi Yuqi also reached the semi-finals after claiming a tough quarter-final win against No. 5 seed H. S. Prannoy of India. The 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Shi came back from 13-18 down before winning the first set 21-19. The demoralized Prannoy could only wave the white flag as Shi closed out the match with a 21-11 second set victory. Shi will clash with Taiwanese player and No. 6 seed Wang Tzu Wei next. After dropping the first set, Wang rallied back to beat Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 14-21, 21-16, 21-17 in the quarter-finals.
Malaysia’s campaign at the Swiss Open ended on Friday as women’s doubles pair No. 3 seeds Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei failed to progress further after losing to No. 7 seeds Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen of Denmark in the quarter-finals. The Malaysian pair put up strong resistance in the second set, but failed to convert in the decider to go down 18-21, 21-8, 15-21 in 72 minutes.
Zhang Nan of China will go into the Swiss Open semi-finals on a high after winning the men’s doubles and mixed doubles quarter-final matches. He and Liu Cheng will play No. 4 seeds Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England in the men’s doubles semi-finals on Saturday, while he and Li Yinhui will meet No. 2 seeds Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto of Indonesia in the mixed doubles semi-finals.