CHINA MASTERS 2011 QF – No birthday gift for Koo & Tan

Koo Kien Keat / Tan Boon Heong’s hope of earning the China Masters title as their birthday presents crashed as they suffered their 11^th loss to their Korean nemeses Jung Jae Sung / Lee Yong Dae. Meanwhile, Yoo Yeon Seong earned himself his second semi-finals ticket as he – and Ko Sung Hyun – breezed past Hong Wei / Shen Ye in the men’s doubles.

By Ooi Ee Lyn, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (live)

Malaysia’s last hope at a title were completely on their golden boys Koo Kien Keat / Tan Boon Heong, as they were the only Malaysians left in the lineup of this quarter-finals day. Koo/Tan will be celebrating their 26^th and 24^th birthday, respectively, on September 18, the day at when the finals of the event will be played.  However, Korea’s Lee Yong Dae – who was a step shy from receiving his 23^rd birthday present last Sunday – and Jung Jae Sung managed to shatter the Malaysians’ aim of obtaining one of the best birthday surprises.

Koo/Tan have yet to discover a better strategy to take down their biggest nemeses on the circuit in order to shorten the 3-10 gap they silently suffered in their head-to-head stats. The Malaysians had probably found a way to tame the Koreans and took the first set 21-15, but the start of the second game saw the Koreans switching gears and delivering their shots more aggressively towards the other end of the court. Jung / Lee eventually nailed their 11^th victory over Koo and Tan, ending the next two games 21-16, 21-13 in their favour.

Denmark’s Mathias Boe / Carsten Mogensen disposed of Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan / Bona Septano in 22-20, 23-21, and are now looking forward to their own 11^th meeting with Jung / Lee in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Good and bad news – in doubles – in doubles

While England’s Chris Adcock was still fresh from his fall in the mixed doubles, he and Andrew Ellis took on China’s world #1 Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng, with his last hope for a semi-finals entrance pass. However, Cai/Fu had a greater goal to hit. They are on the run for their second consecutive title – and to reach the top of a major tournament for their 6^th time in succession since April. After straight games of 21-18, 21-14 in favour of the defending champions, Adcock suffered his second blow as he lost – as well – his men’s doubles match with Andrew Ellis.

In contrast to Adcock’s double blow, Korea’s Yoo Yeon Seong took pleasure of his second quarter-final victory. It wasn’t an easy win for the Koreans, but in the end, Ko/Yoo had another share of good news, beating China’s Hong Wei / Shen Ye 22-20, 21-16, to meet Cai/Fu in a repeat of last year’s final, a round earlier, on Saturday.

Amongst the Chinese domination, Denmark’s Joachim Fischer Nielsen / Christinna Pedersen got the better of fellow Danes Thomas Laybourn / Kamilla Rytter Juhl and advanced into the most evenly spread semi-final round of the event. They will play against Xu Chen / Ma Jin as the Chinese beat top seeds Zhang/Zhao after the former had to stop after the first game citing an elbow injury, while Korea’s Yoo/Jang and India’s Diju Valiyaveetil / Jwala Gutta will work their part in the other half of the draw.

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