Playing brilliantly, top seeded Indian, Saina Nehwal defeated Hana Ramadhini of Indonesia 21-15, 21-12. In a match that lasted just 39 minutes, Saina didn’t allow any foot hold to the wayward Indonesian. After the match, Saina said it was not about no.1 or no.2 spots in world rankings but concentrating on the next match held the key. India made another signature statement, when men’s no. 2 seed Kidambi Srikanth also entered the semifinal after some hard work. World No.4 Srikanth had to overcome a strong challenge from Japan’s Takuma Ueda, who stretched the Indian to three games. Srikanth won the first at 21-15 but the Japanese was tenacious in the second. The game was finally decided in favor of the Japanese at 25-23 as Ueda managed to force the decider. Srikanth exercised tremendous self-control in the third game despite the forceful Japanese refusing to yield easy points. Regardless, Srikanth prevailed in the third game and wrapped up the match at 21-15, 23-25, 21-18 after 78 grueling minutes. For a place in the final, Srikanth will have to get past China’s Xue Song, who won against another Indian RMV Gurusaidutt 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 in one hour four minutes. Gurusaidutt, who had ended Sameer Verma’s run on the third day, fought hard but had to yield against the committed Chinese.
Another Indian HS Prannoy, who created ripples on day 3 by beating the top men’s seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark, lost his quarterfinal match to another Denmark player no.6 seed Viktor Axelsen. It looked as if Axelsen was determined to take revenge of his compatriot Jorgensen’s defeat and he fulfilled his ambition by beating Prannoy 16-21, 21-9, 21-18 in 58 minutes. But the match of the day involved no.3 seed Lin Dan of China and no.8 seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia. It was a thrilling encounter in which Sugiarto made the Chinese move all over the court and elicited a number of unforced errors from the world-famous Chinese. For the first time in a super-series match, the Super Dan was stretched to three games and then lost thematch to Sugiarto 17-21, 21-15, 17-21. After the match, Sugiarto credited his win to his father, the legendary Icuk Sugiarto and former world champion, who now coaches him.
In men’s doubles, no.1 seeds Mathis Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark defeated China’s no.6 seeds Wang Yilv/Zhang Wen 21-19, 21-14. For the place in the final, they will compatriots and no. 7 seeds Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding. Conrad-Petersen/Pieler Kolding also got past the no. 4 seeded Chinese pair of Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zihan. Chinese no.3 seeded pair of Chai Biao/Hong Wei defeated the Japanese duo and no.5 seeds Hirokatsu Hashimoto/Noriyasu Hirata 13-21, 21-19, 21-15. The fourth semifinalists were the 8th seeded Russians Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov who beat Japan’s no.2 seeds Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa 25-23, 11-21, 21-12..
In women’s doubles, top-seeded Japanese women’s duo Matsutomo/Takahashi defeated Korean pair of Lee so Hee/Shin Seung Chan; Christinna Pedersen/Kamila Rytter of Denmark beat Hong Kong’s Chan Kaka Tse Ka/Tse Ying Suet; China’s Bao Yixin/Tang Jinhua beat Korea’s Chang Ye Na/Yoo Hae Wan and in an all-Chinese quarterfinal, China’s Luo Ying/Luo Yu beat Ou Donghi/Xiaohan Yu.
In mixed doubles, top seeds Joachim Fischer-Nielsen/ Christinna Pedersen beat Japan’s Kenichi Hayakawa/Misaki Matsutomo; Indonesians Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto defeated China’s Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong; another Indonesian pair Edi Subaktiar/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja defeated compatriots Chayut Triyachart/Shinta Mulia Sari and Chinese pair of Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin beat Denmark’s Mads Pieler Kolding/ Kamila Rytter.