Japan shuttlers dominate final round to secure 6 slots for all 5 disciplines with all JPN affair in MD.
Anyone know the age of the singles players that Japan brought? I think Ueda is 23/24, but don't know about the others...
Takuma Ueda - 23 (Unisys) Riichi Takeshita - 22 (Tonami) Ayaka Takahashi - 22 (Unisys) Misaki Matsutomo - 20 (Unisys) Yuka Kusunose - 25 (Hokoto Bank) Kaori Imabeppu - 25 (Panasonic) Kenichi Hayakawa - 26 (Unisys) Yoshiteru Hirobe - 29 (Unisys) Kenta Kazuno - 26 (Unisys) Hiroyuki Endo - 25 (Unisys) Shu Wada - 21 （Nittai)
At the end, only 2 titles for Japan in MD & WD. Tony Gunawan/Vita Marissa won the XD title after an easy 21-13, 21-10 victory over the third-seed Kenichi Hayakawa/Misaki Matsutomo. This is Vita's first title since the Chinese-Taipei Open GPG in 2010 (with Hendra A. Gunawan).
Clean sweep didn't happen sis, only 2 titles here Japan players won the first two final matches, MD & WD. Cheer for home fans as Tony Gunawan delivered XD title, partnered with Vita Marissa.
Taiwanese badminton player enters semifinals of U.S. Open [TABLE="align: center"] [TR] [TD] [TABLE="align: center"] [TR] [TD] Focus Taiwan[TABLE] [TR] [TD] [TABLE] [TR] [TD="colspan: 2"] [TABLE="align: center"] [TR] [TD="colspan: 2"]2012/07/06 22:25:08 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 2, align: left"] [TABLE="align: left"] [TR] [TD] [TABLE="align: center"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD="bgcolor: #F0F0F0"] [TABLE="align: center"] [TR] [TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Los Angeles, July 5 (CNA) Taiwan's Pai Hsiao-ma defeated Phyllis Chan of Canada in straight sets Thursday to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Open badminton championships. Pai, who won her match 21-11, 21-8, was the only Taiwanese player who reached the quarterfinals in any of the events to advance to the next round of the tournament. The world's top players are not competing at the U.S. Open, preferring instead to prepare for the Olympic Games. That has left opportunities for players like Pai, who is ranked 27th in the world in women's singles but is the top seed in Los Angeles, to pick up valuable ranking points. Pai said her match against Chan was not difficult, but she anticipated a stiffer challenge from Zhang Beiwin of Singapore in the semifinals. The 26-year-old Taiwanese described Zhang as a strong player who was trained in China before deciding to play for Singapore, but she said she could win the match if she played her best. In another quarterfinal match involving a Taiwanese player, sixth-seeded Chou Tien-chen fell to fourth-seeded Tan Chun-seang of Malaysia 21-12, 21-14 in men's singles. Also, Lu Chia-bin and Chen Chung-jen were ousted by third-seeded Americans Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan 21-17, 21-7 in men's doubles, and Pai and Lu lost to Toby Ng and Grace Gao of Canada 15-21, 22-20, 22-20 in mixed doubles. (By Oscar Wu and Elizabeth Hsu) enditem/ls[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] PS: Zhang Beiwen was brought to Singapore at an early age of around 13 and received her professional training from then until recently. I believe ZBW is around 21-22 now. Another girl from China, Xing Aiying, 22, also started professional training with the SBA when she was around 13 as well. But Aiying won the US Open a few years ago. I just found out that ZBW lost in the SF and she has left the SBA since last year.[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
SBA = Singapore Badminton Association The national body for the promotion of badminton in Singapore with its main task of developing and training of professional players to represent the country.
