Chong Wei, Saina on track, Hashimoto-Hirata serve up a surprise

Posted by Lucas Liau News 10:36 AM

In men's doubles, the upets continued with Japan's Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata scoring a stunner when they defeated World No 1 Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia to check into the last four while Chinese Taipei's Fang Chieh Min-Lee Sheng Mu impressed once again in a repeat of their Singapore Open win over the United States pair of Howard Bach-Tony Gunawan.
Indonesia's former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat also stayed on track for another final when he beat teammate Simon Santoso in the men's singles.
Chong Wei, who was shown the exit in the last eight of the Singapore Open last week by Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro, will have the opportunity to exact revenge as he will take on the latter in Saturday's semi-final.
The Malaysian marched into the last four with a resounding win over Japan's Kenichi Tago. Although the match went to three games, Chong Wei looked a comfortable winner in his 21-12, 8-21, 21-12 triumph.
On his meeting against Sony, Chong Wei said it was always difficult to play any Indonesian player in Jakarta.
"Whether it is Sony or Taufik or any other Indonesian player, they are always to difficult to play against on their home soil,' said Chong Wei.
"But I have prepared well and adapted to the conditions here (Istora Senayan Stadium) and hope all will fall in place tomorrow (Saturday)."
Sony also took a cautious approach when asked about his chances against the Malaysian.
"The Singapore Open is history and I have to focus on tomorrow's match," said Sony on his chances against Chong Wei.
"He can change the pace of the game at will and it will be another close match and let's just see what happens."
The second men's singles semi-final will feature Taufik, who beat Santoso 21-14, 13-21, 21-13, against Vietnam's Nguyen Tienh Minh. The Vietnamese was an easy winner against Japan's Sho Sasaki (21-14, 21-15).
There was, however, plenty to cheer for the Japanese team in the men' doubles when Hashimoto-Hirata, despite dropping the first game 21-13, came back strongly to win the next two games - 21-19, 21-18 - against the Malaysian top seeds.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong, wo were expected to go all the way to the final in the absence of some of the top names in doubles, could not match the spirited display put up by the Japanese pair.
Hashimoto-Hirata will take on South Korea's Cho Gun Woo-Kwon Yi Goo in the semi-final.
Chieh Min-Sheng Mu also showed their Singapore Open win over Bach-Gunawan was no fluke when they repeated the feat in Friday's quarter-final, this time scoring a 21-15, 21-18 win over the Americans. The Chinese-Taipei pair will play England's Nathan Robertson-Anthony Clark in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, India's Saina Nehwal suffered a minor shock when she dropped the first game but finally recovered in her hard fought 17-21, 21-11, 21-17 win over Russia's Ella Diehl.
Her opponent in the semi-finals will be Japan's Eriko Hirose who also battled more than one hour to subdue Netherlands' Yao Jie 21-19, 10-21, 22-20.
The second women's singles semi-final will feature Japan's Sayaka Sato and Indonesia's Ana Rovita.