Carolina Marin won against Beiwen Zhang and reached the semi-final at the Fuzhou China Open. Skaarup Rasmussen/Astrup and Anders Antonsen had to accept defeats against strong opponents.
On Friday, the quarter-finals at the Fuzhou China Open got underway. Thereby, Carolina Marin was able to win her match against Beiwen Zhang after two straight games, 21-11 and 21-13.
The last time both Women’s Singles players faced each other, was in 2013. Before the match on Friday in Fuzhou, Marin was able to win one out of three matches against her opponent from the USA.
Semi-final on Saturday
Now, Marin, who is the current number five in the world, is playing against Chen Yufei from China, who is currently world-ranked number four. The semi-final match will get underway on Saturday.
Next to Marin, three more Europeans have qualified themselves for the quarter-finals on Friday: The Danish Men’s Double pair, Anders Skaarup Rasmussen/ Kim Astrup and the Men’s Singles player, Anders Antonsen.
A close match against the World Champion
Anders Skaarup Rasmussen/Kim Astrup had to deal with a tough task, playing against Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, who are the current number one in the world and the defending World Champion.
After 40 minutes and two close matches, 20-22 and 17-21, the Danes had to accept a defeat by their Indonesian opponents.
Fifth match, fourth defeat
Another Dane that got knocked out in the quarter-finals at the Fuzhou China Open, is Anders Antonsen. He had to face Chen Long.
The duel between Anders Antonsen and Chen Long on Friday, was the match between the current number 19 and number five in the world.
The result: Chen Long, who is seeded number six in Fouzhou, won after two close matches with 21-18 and 21-15. For Antonsen, it has been the fourth defeat in the fifth match against the Chinese.
Find the draws for the semi-final matches here.