Top seeds fall in men’s singles

Eric Pang gave the home crowd something to cheer about as he defeated second seed Ajay Jayaram to reach the semi-finals of the Yonex Dutch Open on Friday.

The fifth seeded Dutch player was forced to dig deep before he closed out a tight match 21-11, 22-24, 24-22.  He will meet Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen, who came back from an opening game loss to beat India’s Arvind Bhat 20-22, 21-13, 21-12.
Taiwan’s Hsueh Hsuan Yi stunned third seed Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland (right) to reach the semi-finals.
The seventh seed, overcame a first game deficit before pulling away to beat his higher ranked opponent 19-21, 21-19, 21-14 to reach the last four where here will meet unseeded Dane Rasmus Fladberg. Fladberg outplayed Ukraine’s Valeriy Atrashchenkov 21-16, 21-17 in his quarter-final match.
Thai sensation Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who is the top seed and Holland’s Yao Jie, who is seeded second, both safely reached the semi-finals with easy victories.
Porntip defeated Taiwan’s Pai Hsiao Ma 21-19, 21-15 while Yao Jie outplayed Ireland’s Chloe Magee 21-11, 21-16.
In Saturday’s semi-final, Porntip will meet India’s P.V. Sindhu who defeated Switzerland’s Jeanine Cicognini 21-18, 21-19 while Yao Jie meets Denmark’s Karina Jorgensen, who edged Czech Republic’s Kristina Gavnholt 21-14, 17-21, 21-19.
The hosts have two more semi-finals to cheer on Saturday as Ruud Bosch-Koen Ridder and Lotte Jonathans-Paulien Van Dooremalen reached the last four of the men’s and women’s doubles competitions respectively.
Bosch-Ridder eased into the last four with a 21-19, 21-16 victory over India’s Pranav Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar while Jonathans-Van Dooremalen beat the Dutch-Ukraine combination of Marija Ulitina-Natalya Voytsekh 21-14, 21-15.
The mixed doubles will be a battle between Thailand and Germany after both countries had two pairs each make it to the last four.
Top seeds Sudket Prapakamol-Saralee Thoungthongkam defeated Denmark’s Mikkel Delbo Larsen-Lena Grebak 21-14, 21-17, to set up a meeting with third seeds Michael Fuchs-Birgit Michels, who received a walkover from Ukraine’s Valeriy Atrashchenkov-Anna Kobceva.
Second seeds Songphon Anugritayawon-Kunchala Voravichitchaikul beat Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta-Vanessa Neo of Singapore 21-16, 21-10 and will play Peter Kaesbauer-Johanna Goliszewski, who beat Taiwan’s Lu Chia Bin-Wu Ti Jung 21-23, 21-13, 21-15.