FRENCH OPEN 2015 QF – Paris’s favourite to the semis!

Chou Tien Chen, hero of the 2014 edition of the French Open Superseries, proved once more that the Parisian soil remains blessed as he rushes towards the semis, after a laborious win over Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long and minutes later, Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto helped Indonesian fans forget about Natsir/Ahmad’s early exit as they sent Olympic silver medallists Xu/Ma packing .

By Tarek Hafi, Badzine Correspondent live in Paris.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

The Taiwan chief showcased once more his excellent form, joining the last four of a Superseries for a third time in a row.  Chou Tien Chen (pictured) led the way towards victory against a brave Ng Ka Long, who took the defending champion to a rubber.

“I really wanted to win in two games! But something went wrong in the second game.  I couldn’t follow his rhythm, but in the third I managed to be faster and used more attacking play,” analysed Chou Tien Chen after his match, looking obviously very exhausted from his last two tough matches he was involved in.

The twenty-five year-old player indeed had to fight much harder today than his others encounters against the Hong Kong player, but made his way out of his own trouble to live up to the crowd’s expectation: “Everyone wants me to win this year, but it looks difficult to me.  Last time there was no Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan or Chen Long, though I managed to grow as a player.  But I still need to work harder, give my all in every match,” added Chou Tien Chien who will find, as his semi-final opponent, an eager Jan O. Jorgensen, after the Dane defeated China’s Tian Houwei in straight games.

Indonesia’s inheritors

Despite the lightning loss earlier in the week by Indonesia’s celebrated senior pair, Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto (pictured) fought like no one to join the last four of the Yonex French Open Superseries. The Indonesian pair displaying some excellent mental abilities during their last two matches, where they had to face great adversity.

Today, they wore out none other than the current Olympic silver medallists Xu Chen and Ma Jin, in a fantastic encounter, where the whole crowd gathered in one to follow the match on court three.

The world number nine completely dominated the first game 21-8, leaving no chance to Xu Chen and Ma Jin until the latter saw their pride hurt a bit too much.

“We lost our rhythm in the second game, we played differently, we were too defensive and found out we needed to come back to an attacking game in the third,” admitted Debby Susanto.

And it indeed worked out much better for the Indonesian pair, who were able to go so far as to save a match point before claiming their ticket to the semis, improving their Superseries results.  There they will get to meet Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong, a pair they have already beaten once.

“Like yesterday, it was very close but I must not think about the win or loss, and not being too confident but focus on the point I am playing,” concluded Debby Susanto, all smiles after her wonderful performance in Paris so far.

Click here for complete quarter-final results