Paris: In the semifinals of the mixed doubles badminton event at the Paris Olympics, World No. 1 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong defeated World No. 5 Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan in straight sets, advancing to the final! The scores for the two sets were 21-14, 21-15.
Since pairing up, Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong have won three world championships but have yet to capture an Olympic gold medal. In the last Olympics in Tokyo, they lost in the final to their compatriots Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping, narrowly missing out on the gold medal.
In the final, Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong will face South Korea’s World No. 8 pair, Kim Won-Ho/Jeong Na-Eun, for the gold medal.
Kim Won-Ho/Jeong Na-Eun pulled off an upset by defeating the reigning world champions and their teammates, World No. 2 Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yoo Jung, with scores of 21-16, 20-22, 23-21.
Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino have now been stopped in the semifinals for two consecutive Olympics. They won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and will compete for another bronze this time.
Watanabe/Higashino will compete against Seo/Chae in the bronze medal match.
In the women’s singles quarterfinals, the top half will see World No. 1 An Se Young of Korea clash with World No. 6 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan while defending champion Chen Yufei will take on her teammate, World No. 9 He Bingjiao, in the bottom half.
Chen and He met in the semifinals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where Chen eventually won 21-16, 13-21, 21-12. Many badminton fans commented on social media that although the match went to three games, the points seemed easy as if they were just in a training session. Chen was not affected by this “three-set tough fight” and went on to win the gold medal in Tokyo.
Other women’s singles quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics will see Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand face Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia, and the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Carolina Marin will play Aya Ohori.
