By Koh Yizhe and Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Friday, June 12, 2009 – The Singapore Badminton Open reached its quarter-final stages which brought about thrills and spills. Red Sports relives some of those moments in a picture story.
Second seed Wang Yihan crashed out of the 2009 Singapore Badminton Open women’s singles event after succumbing to compatriot and world number 21 Jiang Yanjiao in straight sets 21-17, 21-11. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Jiang Yanjiao strategy was to consistently force China’s new-crowned badminton queen, Wang Yihan, to the four corners of the court with her well-placed smashes. (Photo 2 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
With this victory, Jiang Yanjiao will now face another compatriot, 2008 Olympic Games runners-up Xie Xingfang in the semi-final. (Photo 3 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Wang Yihan’s defeat is one of the many upsets in this year’s tournament. (Photo 4 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Top seed Zhou Mi of Hong Kong beat Netherlands’ Judith Meulendijks in straight sets 23-21 21-17 in 40 minutes. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The Dutch lady pushed Zhou Mi to her limits in the first set and even held two game points before losing to the current world number 2. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The former Chinese player, Zhou Mi, had to dig deep to fend off a player ranked 21 places below her. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Judith Meulendijks had beaten Singapore’s Fu Mingtian in the previous round convincingly but her quarter-final opponent was too good for her and her campaign ended in Singapore. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The third seed and world number 4 Wang Lin avoided another upset for China in the women's singles event as she came back from a set down to defeat India’s 6th seeded Saina Nehwal 19-21, 21-19, 21-14 in 59 minutes. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The first set was a close affair with the 2008 World Junior Champion Saina barely nicking the set 19-21. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Wang Lin then made the talented Indian stretched for her points as she took the second set 21-19. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
With momentum on her side, Wang Lin ran away with the match 21-14 in the tiebreaker to set up a mouthwatering semi-final match against the top seed Zhao Mi. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
In the men’s singles, 4th seed and curent world number 6 Chen Jin came from a set down to beat Denmark's youngster Jan O Jorgensen 15-21, 21-17, 21-18 to advance into the semi-final. China’s Chen Jin is the only seeded player remaining in the men’s singles event. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Jorgensen of Denmark won the first set with ease as he sent accurate shots to the four corners of the court as Chen Jin scrambled around. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
There was, however, a change of fortune in the second game as Chen Jin came back fighting and held a massive 9-point lead before securing the set 21-17. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The spirited Dane took an early lead in the rubber set but soon fell behind when Chen Jin scored six consecutive points to win the decider and match 21-18 in 65 minutes. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Having knocked out top seed Lee Chong Wei in the round of 16, Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh was hoping to continue his fairytale run in the quarter-final. He was, however, unable to repeat his magic as he fell to Bao Chunlai in straight sets 21-16, 21-13 in 34 minutes. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The Vietnamese was kept on his toes as his Chinese opponent surged forward in the first game. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Bao Chunlai will face compatriot Chen Jin in the semi-final. Bao was the 2000 World Junior Champion while Chen Jin won the World Junior Champion twice in 2002 and 2004. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
One of the crowd favourites, Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana, also earned a ticket to the semi-finals. Boonsak did what the 2nd seed, Peter Gade, couldn't as he steam-rolled over India's Anup Sridhar 21-11, 21-8 in just 28 minutes. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The “Thai Superman” total of 20 smash winners stood out against Anup's miserable three. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Despite ousting the 2006 Singapore badminton Open champion, Peter Gade, in the round of 16, Anup was no match for Boonsak, who had stolen the title from Peter in 2007. Boonsak’s accurate smashes was too much for Anup to handle. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
With only one seeded player left, Boonsak would fancy his chances to win his second Singapore Badminton Open title in 3 years. Waiting for him in the semi-final is Korea’s Park Sung Hwan, who had beaten his arch nemesis, 3rd seeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21-19, 21-15 earlier in the day. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The 2nd seeded women’s doubles pair of Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei were upset by their 5th seeded seniors Zhang Yawen and Zhao Tingting 15-21, 13-21. Zhang and Zhao will take on Korea’s 3rd seeded pair of Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung in the semi-final. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
The Chinese youngsters Cheng and Zhao thrashed Singapore’s youngsters Samantha Neo and Mok Jing Qiong in the second round. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Zhang Yawen placing the shutle close to the net. Zhang Yawen has won the women’s doubles title twice in Singapore and each time was with a different partner – Zhang Dan in 2005 and Wei Yili in 2007. If logic prevails, she is title-bound in 2009 with her third different partner – Zhao Tingting. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
N.B. The event is also known as the Aviva Open Singapore
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