Yonex Japan Open 2008 - Semi’s Round ups and Videos

Men's Singles

To start off the Semi's roundups, I would like to begin with Lee Chong Wei (M'sia) who picked up his pace and form to win easily againts Joachim Persson (Den) 21-6 & 21-4. It was cruise control for Chong Wei as Persson could not find a way to break thru Chong Wei's defence and Chong Wei played with so much confidence with consistent strokes and smashes to win. It was like as though Chong Wei was just toying around with Persson. Thanks to our buddy mmorita3 in YouTube, we're able to have a video on the games.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Fs58qCbr4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpw_szQrWEM]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSnOFzvdnDc]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRyulTrmLeg]

In the other Semi's Sony Dwi Kuncoro (Ind) defeated Kenichi Tago (Japan) 21-15 & 21-16. It was not an easy game as one would assume for Sony has he was made to work hard againts the homeboy Kenichi. However Sony's experience played an important role as he kept his composure to win.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVM5OccJ5iM]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wwsUuRDQ-Q]

Women's Singles

There were two upsets in the singles when last years champion Tine Rasmussen (Den), lost to Wang Yihan (Chn) 21-15 & 21-18.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB7qPpaIKjU]

The other upset came when Zhou Mi (Hongkong) defeated world no. 2 Lu Lan (Chi) in 3 sets 21-9, 13-21, & 13-21. Zhou commented “It has been a long time not to meet Lu in the match whose stroke style has changed. In fact, I was playing as if we met first time and the difficulty to adapt the wind direction due to air condition made me lost the first game.” But Zhou could recover very well from the second and played better in third game.

Men's Doubles
Young Indonesian pair, Ahsan/Septano, won the match against fellow Indonesians Yonatan Suryatama Dasuki, Rian Sukmawan 21-16 and 21-19. Septano commented that he is very happy and didn’t expect to go this far. Looks like Indonesia has some young talent in the rise and it can be worrying to Malaysia if they continue to groom these talents to the right direction.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtUCMuBunb8]

In the other doubles, second seed Lars Paaske, Jonas Rasmussen (Den) defeated home favourites Keita Masuda, Tadashi Ohtsuka (Jpn) 21-17 & 21-16. Both pairs played some good badminton however the experience Lars and Jonas played a much more attacking play forcing the Japanese pair to defend most of the time. Heart breaking moment for the Japanese fans as their players failed to qualify for a finals this time around.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9TQNuGBZ-U]

Women's Doubles
Cheng Su, Zhao Yunlei (Chn) defeated Miyuki Maeda, Satoko Suetsuna (Jpn) 21-15, 21-16. The Japanese pair had many chances to attack however, their attack could not break thru to Cheng and Zhao's defence hence forcing them to lift to the Chinese pair. It was more or less a one sided game however credit to Park Joo Bong for bringing the Japanese pair this far.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OJl_2hLdK0]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpX6XRn5OFc]

Malaysia's Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui continued their fine run by reaching their first ever Japan Open Finals defeating Vita Marissa , Liliyana Natsir (Ind) 21-11 18-21 21-18. Well done to Pei Tty and Eei Hui. I think it would be a good final to watch however I favour the Chinese to win this.

Mix Doubles
It's an all Indonesia finals in the Mix doubles when Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir (Ind) and Muhammad Rijal/Vita Marissa (Ind) managed to overcame their opponents to make it a dream Indonesian finals.

Thats all folks.. Will update ya'll with the final results!

Ciao da mao