Yup, a big upset that saw the hot favourite lost meekly, 13-10 / 10-21 to Merkle. The Frenchman will take on Li Shifeng who had to dig deep to pass Ireland Nguyen Nhat, 15-21 / 21-19 / 21-19. Meanwhile title contenders, Lakshya Sen and Kodai Naraoka are still intact into semifinal and facing each other to seek final spot. Women's Singles, Goh Jin Wei will meet top-seed Phittayaporn Chaiwan, the Malaysian is favoured to through into gold medal match considering her credential and more exposures in international tournament. The winner of this most likely will up against China young ace Wang Zhiyi in finale. Wang has Singaporean girl Jaslyn Hooi to overcome next. SEMIFINAL (12.00pm local time) => https://www.buenosaires2018.com/results/en/badminton/daily-schedule-date=2018-10-11.htm?lng=en
Nice to see more stars from relatively small badminton country like Ireland and France. Youth Olympic is a big title and a magnificent achievement that they will remember for a long time. Now I wonder who will win? LS is definitely the title contender, along with Kodai. LSF also not to be underestimated.
YOG Semi Finals Match overview of Thursday, October 11, 2018 12:00 PM WS Phittayaporn CHAIWAN [1] [THA] v [MAS] Jin Wei GOH [3] 12:50 PM MS Arnaud-Sylvain-Andre MERKLE [7] [FRA] v [CHN] Shifeng LI [5] 1:40 PM WS Yue Yann Jaslyn HOOI [SGP] v [CHN] Zhiyi WANG [2] 2:30 PM MS Lakshya SEN [4] [IND] v [JPN] Kodai NARAOKA [2] Nice to see an unseeded Singapore girl in the above SF. Well done and good luck Jaslyn!
Kunlavut lost to Arnaud Merkle, an upset but not that surprising to me as I remember seeing Arnaud played before (against Lin Dan, iirc) and thought he's quite good for a youngster. But, frankly, his winning by such a convincing two-setter score , 21-13, 21-10, is unexpected. In my opinion, these two plus Lakshya and Kodai are the four favourites, and I originally considered Kunlavut as the frontrunner. I don't think Li Shifeng can overcome Arnaud Merkle, and Lakshya looks good for a final spot. As for WS, Goh Jin Wei for being more experienced playing the pro circuit should have a slight edge over Wang Zhiyi who mostly plays on the junior circuit.
Woh, what happened, Li Shifeng trounced Arnaud Merkel, 21-7, 21-12 ?! Merkle injured or something ? Anybody watched the match ?
Singapore girl got red card for delaying and 1 point was given to chinese girl. I was surprised to see that. Because there is no warning at all , i mean no yellow card at all. Directly, the umpire shown red card and awarded one point to opponent. Any experts here can explain about this?
So Goh Jin Wei vs Wang Zhiyi for WS final. Although I strongly want GJW to win, the logical prediction is for WZY to prevail. GJW seems to be unable to do well when she is expected to do so.
Too close to call if it goes to a decider, which is almost confirmed. Unfortunately, it's already 3am here, so I will let myself sleep for a while.
