All England Open: Lee Zii Jia stuns Momota, Axelsen sails to last four


All England Open: Lee Zii Jia stuns Momota, Axelsen sails to last four

Viktor Axelsen and Kento Momota

In the men’s singles category were top seed splaying, with an eye on the historic All England title. With Momota being back in action, an Axelsen-Momota final was something all were looking upto. But the quartefinals crashed all hopes of such possibilities

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Lee Zii Jia stuns Momota

It was a spectacular match between Kento Momota and Lee Zii Jia. Momota has been one player whose come back the whole world has been looking up to. World number 10 Lee Zii Jia, a promising player from Malaysia has been looking to clinch titles for a while now.

Lee Zii Jia seemed to have his game on point as he took the first game 2-16 with his aggression and attacking play. Momota seemed a bit off colour, probably due to lack of match practise of such level.

In the second game, Momota made a come back from 5-11 down and going neck-to-neck. He saved to point while he was 17-19 down but could not keep his momentum up. An error by Momota on the return of serve made it 20-19. Lee Zii Jia let out a loud roar as he won the match when a return of smash by Momota failed to cross the game. Sixth see Lee Zii beat the first seed Momota 21-16, 21-19 in 55 minutes of top-class badminton from both players.

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Lakshya Sen went down to Mark Caljouw

Lakshya Sen
Lakshya Sen | Credits: Mid day

Lakshya kept up the pace in the first half of the first game. However, post the mid-game break Mark kept himself a step ahead with a consistent gap of point with this attack and took the game 21-17.

The tables turned in the second game as Lakshya played tactically, played more aggressively and getting errors out of Mark. He fought and won the second game 21-16.

The decider was a crucial game. Mark dominated and went off to a 9-4 lead. Lakshya clawed his way back in narrowing the gap, going 11-15. However, it was mark who could maintain pace and shots as he went up closer to the match pints and clinched the match, 21-17, 16-21, 21-17 in 55 minutes of play.

Antonsen brushes off Kanta Tsuneyama

Anders Antonsen
Anders Antonsen

Kanta Tsuneyama has been giving a tough time for the top players. He beat Rasmus Gemke in the round of 16 and then took Anders Antonsen to three sets in the quarterfinal. Antonsen had to dig deep and play deep corners and play aggressively to beat Tsuneyama of Japan. In an hour an 8 minutes Antonsen came back after a poor second game to win a semi-final slot.

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Axelsen dismisses Thammasin

It was a breeze for Axelsen as he comfortably edged past Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand 21-4,21-15 in 34 minutes. The Thai lad showed some resistance in the second game which gave trouble to Axelsen, but the Dane was too strong and got over it.

Upcoming Semifinal matches

  • Lee Zii Jia[6] vs Mark Caljouw
  • Anders Antonsen vs Viktor Axelsen[2]

Where to watch?

The matches start at 3:30 PM IST and will be telecast live on Star Sports 3 and Star Sports 2 HD TV channels in India and Disney+ Hotstar OTT platform.

Also Read: All England Open: Ashwini/Sikki crash in the quarter-finals