Chris Adcock and Gabby White (pictured) roared into the semi-finals of the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open in Kowloon today with a brilliant display. The world No.7 pair defeated Malaysian fifth seeds Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying 21-18 21-12 in just 38 minutes.
But the win means more than just reaching the last four of this 12th and final tournament on the OSIM BWF Superseries 2013 circuit and ensuring a place in the end-of-year Superseries finals in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysians set the pace in the opening game and led 18-15 before Adcock and White reeled off six points in a row to steal the first game. After that the England pair never looked back as they led all the way through the second to take the match and book a semi-final tomorrow against China's world No.1 pair Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei.
Zhang and Zhao needed 64 minutes to over come Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Miyuki Maeda before winning 17-21 21-10 22-20 after letting the Japanese pair recover from 20-12 down to draw level at 20-20 in the decider.
Adcock and White have faced the Olympic and 2011 world champions three times since mid-October, losing in three games at both the Yonex Denmark and Yonex French Opens and losing in straight games last week at the Victor China Open.
Adcock is back in action in the last match of the day when he and Andy Ellis bid for a place in the men's doubles semi-finals against Markis Kido and Gideon Markus Fernaldi of Indonesia.
Pedersen/Juhl reach semi-finals - Jørgensen out
Denmark's Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl are also through to the semi-finals in Hong Kong. The world number 3 duo will face Ou/Tang of China. Jan Ø. Jørgensen lost out his quarter-final against world number one Lee Chong Wei in two straight games, while Russia's Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov were close in advancing to the semi-finals. The world number 11 duo lost to the top seeds from Indonesia 21-15, 14-21, 22-20.
To view all today's scores go to
www.tournamentsoftware.com
Article by William King. Photo by BadmintonPhoto.
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