The semi-finalists have been decided at the YONEX North Harbour International 2019 as a morning of world-class badminton saw more top seed upsets and domination from the Chinese players competing in the quarter-finals.
The mixed doubles opened proceedings, with the first seeds and reigning mixed doubles champions at the VICTOR Oceania Individual Championships, Gronya Somerville and Simon Wing Hang Leung from Australia, first on court. The pair were up against the young Chinese pairing of Zhang Hanyu and Pan Hanxiao, who put in an incredible performance against the first seeds, providing a thrilling contest over three long games to eventually walk away with one thier biggest wins to date.
- Zhang Hanyu/Pan Hanxiao vs Simon Wing Hang Leung/Gronya Somerville (AUS) [1] 21-16 18-21 21-16
“There were up and down peaks throughout the match and it could have gone either way, but we were a bit unlucky today.” – Gronya Somerville
“There a few mistakes from myself, especially in the mid court area. But I think we kept fighting and there’s a lot to learn from our game today against a very decent pair.” – Simon Wing Hang Leung
“Before the match we did a lot of preparations, our opponents are so strong and experienced, they are the number one seeds. We didn’t have much confidence to win but we just wanted to challenge ourselves and this is our best result so far” –Pan Hanxiao
China dominated the other three quarter-finals, making the mixed doubles competition an all-Chinese affair from now on:
- Xuheng Zhuanyi/iI Jiajia(CHN) vs Dai Zhiyi/Wang Hui (CHN) 18-21 21-17 21-19
- Zhang Binrong/Hou Fangfang (CHN) vs Jonathan Curtin/Erena Calder-Hawkins (NZL) [4] 21-12 21-6
- Yan Yuhang/Yang Jiayi (CHN)/Runze Yan/Qin Jinjing (AUS) 21-15 21-19
In the women’s singles, the recently crowned junior women’s singles winner at the VICTOR Oceania Championships, Shaunna Li was up against the Chinese singles player who celebrated a victory over the first seed yesterday. Qiu Ziying, currently ranked at 855 in the world, has found her form this week and secured her spot in the semi-finals:
- Qiu Ziying (CHN) vs Shaunna Li (NZL) 21-7 21-4
“I am now out of all three events after making the quarter finals in the singles, but it’s been a great experience. The Chinese players are very strong and I just tried to play my best.” – Shaunna Li
New Zealand’s third seed, Sally Fu, was also knocked out by strong Chinese opposition:
- Wu Luoyu (CHN) vs Sally Fu (NZL) [3] 21-13 21-11
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, China’s Gao Zhengze caused another huge upset after beating the second seed from Indonesia, Andre Marteen:
- Gao Zhengze (CHN) vs Andre Marteen (IDO) 21-19 21-15
“I will use this lesson to prepare for future tournaments as I made a lot of mistakes in this game.” – Andre Marteen
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese first seed, and current world number 64, Tien Minh Nguyen, put on another fantastic display of badminton against China’s Tang Kaifeng to secure a semi-final spot:
- Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE) [1] vs Tang Kaifeng (CHN) 21-18 21-10
New Zealand’s Sally Fu was later able to redeem herself in the women’s doubles quarter-finals. Along with her partner, Alyssa Tagle, the first seeds held off the challenge against fellow compatriots Roanne Apalisok and Janice Jiang to secure a spot in the semi-final:
- Sally Fu/Alyssa Tagle (NZL) [1] vs Roanne Apalisok/Janice Jiang 21-14 21-13
The New Zealander’s are the only non-Chinese pair through to the semi-finals, after their compatriots Ko and Fransisca narrowly lost to a strong Chinese pair over three long games.
- Qiu Ziying/Wang Hui (CHN) vs Ko Hyun Jeong/Fransisca Angelica Rahardja (NZL) 19-21 22-20 21-17
In the men’s doubles, the first seeds and runners up at the recent VICTOR Oceania Championships stormed through their quarter-final match to become the only non-Chinese pair to make it through to the semi-finals:
- Simon Wing Hang Leung/Mitchell Wheller (AUS) [1] vs Oscar Lin/Evan Sun (NZL) 21-10 21-6
All of the results from the quarter-finals on day three of competition, along with the semi-final draw for this evening is available to view on Tournament Software.
The semi-finals which take place on court four will be available to watch on live-stream, via the Badminton New Zealand YouTube channel.
