Danes on a roll, Koo-Tan stunned

YONEX-SUNRISE HONG KONG OPEN 2009 - Danes on a roll, Koo-Tan stunned

Peter Gade keeps enjoying his Kong Kong journey and will be facing Kenichi Tago in the semi-final. His compatriots Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen also got their ticket for the last four.

A good night for Denmark in Hong Kong. It all started with Peter Gade, who beat Simon Santoso to get his ticket for the semi-final the last Super Series Gade would play in this year as he is to skip China next week.

And the Dane knew he had a chance against the one who had taken the Denmark Open title – as a symbol. He just had no idea it would go so fast, as he hinted right after his match. “I knew I would have to keep pressuring him until he bowed. And tonight, it happened much sooner than I expected,” said the Dane who was happily surprised of the short fight he had to put on - 35 minutes – for a 21/12 – 21/8 win.

“He is a good player and I knew that I had to be careful against him. He’s had a great past few weeks and he is amongst the players who are now able to beat the top ones. Nowadays, the men’s singles is like that – many new youngsters can just come in and beat the 4 or 5 players who used to win everything all the time. And I was ready for that tonight.”

But it is Kenichi Tago that the Dane will meet on Saturday, as Chan Yan Kit gave everything in his 21/19 first game victory but had no energy left for the second and third, which Tago took easily 21/9 – 21/12. Tago is yet to beat Gade in an international competition, hence, the Dane will be clear favourite to take on either Bao Chunlai or Lee Chong Wei on Sunday.

In the doubles, the old timers shone in Hong Kong, first the duo of Paaske and Rasmussen edged out Singapore’s youngsters Saputra/Wijaya in straight games, making it a good day for Denmark, while Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong were shown the exit by a pair they know well for having trained with them for many years – Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook. Choong and Lee beat their compatriots 21/12 – 21/7.

England saw the end of their run as well, with the mixed doubles pair of Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg playing well below par. Clark had already given its best against Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae of Korea in the men’s doubles, and the constant pressure put on by the Polish team of Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Kostiuczyk was just too much – the Polish came away with a 21/13 – 21/16 victory and will face Fang Chieh Min/Wang Pei Rong of Chinese Taipei, while a rematch of the French Open will occur in the other mixed doubles semi final between Hendra Aprida Gunawan/Vita Marissa and Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir.

In the women’s singles, once again Wang Xin proved her talent by beating 5^th seed Pi Hongyan of France. After a terrible start where the Chinese gave in 10 points on direct faults, she was back in the match and her left arm worked wonders, creating difficulties for the French to read her fast and efficient game.

It would have been a lesson of badminton, had Pi let go when trailing 13/21 – 8/13, but the French kept fighting, which provided the large audience with a beautiful end of second game.

Both shuttlers leveled up at 18/18, but Pi had given too much energy to catch back and lacked stamina in the end, while her younger opponent was still very fit and took the last three points to enter the semi final. She will play against another Wang – Yihan, who beat the current world champion Lu Lan in straight games 21/17 – 21/15.