Seeds Tumble At International

The quarterfinals of the US$15,000 Li-Ning NZ Badminton International proved to be a graveyard for the higher ranked seeds as their lower ranked opponents showed little respect for word rankings and played above themselves.

She may have been world No12 and tournament top seed at the North Shore Events Centre but Pui Yin Yip(Hong Kong) found herself beaten in straight games by third seed and No25 Sayaka Sato in the semifinals. Sato was too intense and too consistent in the semis winning 21-8 21-15 to face Singaporean fourth seed Juan Gu in the final.

Gu ranked at 33 beat the 2007 world champion, Lin Zhu of China 21-16 21-18.

In the men’s semis second seed Tommy Sugiarto was soundly defeated by Hong Kong’s Wing Ki Wong who was a finalist at the 2009 New Zealand International. Wong ranked at 35 beat the 32 ranked Sugiarto from Indonesia 21-11 21-11 and will play Japan’s Riichi Takeshita in the final.

Takeshita who had earlier beaten the top seed took out former All-England Champion and third seed Muhammad Hafiz Hashim(Malaysia) in the semifinals 21-13 21-15.

In the doubles a Hong Kong pair and Japanese team will meet in the women’s doubles final while a Taiwanese team look the favourites in the men’s doubles final and it will be Singapore versus Japan in the mixed final.’

Finals of the tournament are from 11am, Sunday.

Results – NZ Badminton International, Nth Shore Events Centre, Auckland.
Women’s singles semifinals:
Juan Gu(Singapore) bt Lin Zhu(China) 21-16 21-18, Sayaka Sato(Japan) bt Pui Yin Yip(Hong Kong) 21-8 21-15,
Men’s singles semfinals:
Wing Ki Wong(Hong Kong) bt Tommy Sugiarto(Indonesia) 21-11 21-11, Riichi Takeshita(Japan) bt Muhammad Hafiz Hashim(Malaysia) 21-13 21-15.
Women’s Doubles semifinals:
Lok Yan Poon/Ying Suet Tse(Hong Kong) bt Naoko Fukuman?Kurumi Yonao(Japan) 21-15, 21-16, Yuriko Miki/Koharu Yonemoto(Japan) bt Leanne Choo/Renuga Veeran(Australia) 21-16 21-17.
Men’s doubles semifinals:
Po Yi Huang/Chia Bin Lu(Taipei) bt Kah Ming Chooi/Yao Han Ow(Malaysia) 21-14 21-19
Mixed semifinals:
Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Yu Yan Vanessa Neo(Singapore) bt Rodrigo Pacheco Carrillo/Claudia Rivero Modenesi(Peru) 14-21 21-14 21-12, Takeshi Kamura/Koharu Yonemoto(Japan) bt Anthony Dumartheray/Sabrina Jaquet(Switzerland) 21-16 21-18