Taipei, Aug. 4 (CNA) Three Taiwanese players progressed into the Skycity New Zealand Badminton Open men's singles semifinals on Friday along with one player from Hong Kong.
Wang Tzu-wei, the top-seeded player in the men's singles draw and ranked 12th in the world, beat Anthony Joe of New Zealand 21-7, 21-7 in Friday's quarterfinals, setting up a semifinal showdown against countryman Lin Yu-hsien.
Lin, seeded 11th in Auckland, topped fourth-seeded H.S. Prannoy of India 21-10, 20-22, 23-21 in a 66-minute marathon.
In the other half of the draw, Taiwan's Hsu Jen-hao, seeded sixth, beat another Taiwanese quarterfinalist, Lu Chia-hung, 22-20, 23-21 in another marathon that lasted 67 minutes.
Hsu will face unseeded Lee Cheuk-yiu of Hong Kong on Saturday for the other spot in the finals.
The Taiwanese team of Chen Hung-ling and Wang Chi-lin, seeded No. 1 in the tournament, made the semifinals of the men's doubles event with a comfortable 21-10, 21-12 victory over Chen Sihang and Fan Qiuyue of China in just 25 minutes.
The 2017 New Zealand Badminton Open is a Grand Prix Gold tournament, the fourth highest tier on the badminton tour, after the Olympics and World Championships; Superseries Finals; and Superseries.
