Gopichand in Japan Open semis

Indian ace Pulella Gopichand produced another scintillating display to enter the semi-finals at the Yonex Japan Open badminton championships on Friday.

The 2001 All England champion rallied splendidly to overcome Wu Yunyong of China 7-8, 7-1, 8-6, 2-7, 7-5 in the quarter-finals.

He will meet Lee Hyun Il of Korea, who defeated Hashim Mhuhammad Hafiz of Malaysia 4-7, 7-4, 7-3, 8-7.

In the other semi-final, top seed Xuanze Xia will face Masuda Keita of Japan.

Xia defeated Yu Chen of China 8-6, 7-1, 8-7 while Masuda accounted for Bao Chunlai of China 8-6, 7-2, 7-1 in the other quarter-final, to become the first Japanese in 20 years to reach the semi- finals.

It was another tough outing for the 28-year-old Indian champion, who also needed five games to beat Indonesia's World champion Hendrawan and Korean Open winner Lin Dan of China in the earlier rounds.

"It was very tough like yesterday, it was very close, it could have gone either way," said Gopichand after his 47-minute victory.

Gopichand was up 4-2 in the final game when the two players changed sides, and then soon found himself 4-5 down as he misfired two successive lightning smashes.

But the Indian stayed calm as always. His varied shots forced two backhand errors from his opponent to give him a 6-5 lead. The joint ninth seed then won the match with a delicate soft shot to Wu's left front.

"If you get two points in a row, it's always the problem in a seven-point game. Two points make a lot of difference," Gopichand said about his two misfired smashes.

"I was just trying to be aggressive and trying to keep my head up. It's just great. I hope I can go a little bit (further) in the tournament," added Gopchand.

Masuda said: "I haven't beaten Xia, I lost twice before. I have nothing to lose. I'll just try to enjoy the match tomorrow as I did today.

China dominated the women's event with defending champion Zhou Mi, Asian champion Zhang Ning and Dai Yun, as well as former national team member Wang Chen, who is representing Hong Kong, advancing to the semi-finals.

Zhang knocked out the last non-Chinese player, 1998 Asian Games gold medallist Kanako Yonekura of Japan 5-7, 4-7, 7-1, 7-5, 7-0 to set up a meeting with Dai.

Dai defeated 2000 Asian champion Xie Xingfang 7-2, 4-7, 3-7, 7-0, 7-5 while Zhou defeated two-time Asian junior champion Hu Ting 7-4, 7-3, 7-3 in all-Chinese quarter-finals.

Wang pulled off the biggest win, beating Chinese World champion Gong Ruina 7-4, 8-6, 4-7, 3-7, 8-6.

Earlier reports
Gopichand storms into last eight
Gopichand in second round of Japan Open