Simon and Schenk suffer heartbreaks in Singapore badminton open

KUALA LUMPUR: It was a day of heartbreak for Simon Santoso of Indonesia and Julianne Schenk of Germany in the Singapore Open yesterday.

Simon lost 21-14, 13-21, 20-22 to Lin Dan and Schenk went down fighting 21-17, 15-21, 20-22 to top seed Wang Shixian in the men’s and women’s singles quarter-finals respectively.

Simon gave three-time world champion Lin Dan a huge scare when he led the China superstar 20-15 in the decider.

However, Lin Dan clawed his way back to 20-20 before winning 22-20 in the one-hour battle.

Lin Dan will now try to beat old timer Peter-Gade Christensen of Denmark today to keep alive his hopes of winning his first Singapore Open title.

The other semi-final will be an all-China affair between reigning world champion Chen Jin and 2008 world junior champion Wang Zhengming.

In the women’s singles, it was almost a similar story, with Schenk being on the verge of claiming a big scalp when she took a 20-17 lead in the decider against Shixian.

But nerves got the better of her and Shixian came back to win 22-20.

Shixian will take on the aggressive Tine Baun of Denmark while Holland’s Yao Jie prevented an all-China affair when she knocked out second seed Wang Yihan 21-17, 15-21, 21-16 to set up a meeting with Wang Xin.

In the men’s doubles, China will be involved in both semi-finals.

Three-time world champion Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng have set up a clash against South Koreans Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung while Chai Biao-Guo Zhengdong will take on Indonesians Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan.

Men’s singles: Wang Zhengming (Chn) bt Viktor Axelsen (Den) 21-15, 21-10; Chen Jin (Chn) bt Lee Hyun-il (Kor) 21-14, 21-9; Peter-Gade Christensen (Den) bt Du Pengyu (Chn) 21-15, 21-15; Lin Dan (Chn) bt Simon Santoso (Ina) 14-21, 21-13, 22-20.

Men’s doubles: Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae (Kor) bt Hiroyuki Endo-Kenichi Hayakawa (Jpn) 21-14, 21-14; Chai Biao-Guo Zhengdong (Chn) bt Ingo Kindervater-Johannes Schoettler (Ger) 21-15, 21-10; Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng (Chn) bt Hong Wei-Shen Ye (Chn) 21-11, 21-16; Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan (Ina) bt Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata (Jpn) 21-17, 21-18;

Women’s singles: Tine Baun (Den) bt Cheng Shao-chieh (Tpe) 22-24, 21-17, 21-13; Wang Shixian (Chn) bt Julianne Schenk (Ger) 17-21, 21-15, 22-20; Wang Xin (Chn) bt Gu Juan (Sin) 21-17, 21-12; Yao Jie (Ned) bt Wang Yihan (Chn) 21-17, 15-21, 21-16.

Women’s doubles: Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa (Jpn) bt Valeri Sorokina-Nina Vislova (Rus) 22-20, 21-13; Tian Qing-Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Miyuki Maeda-Satoko Suetsuna (Jpn) 21-8, 21-12; Shizuka Matsuo-Mami Naito (Jpn) bt Vita Marissa-Nadya Melati (Ina) 21-15, 21-8; Ha Jung-eun-Kim Min-jung (Kor) bt Meiliana Jauhari-Greysia Polii (Ina) 21-10, 21-23, 21-14.

Mixed doubles: Chen Gung-ling-Cheng Wen-hsing (Tpe) bt Shoji Sato-Shizuka Matsuo (Jpn) 10-21, 21-14, 21-17; Tantowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir (Ina) bt Lee Yong-dae-Ha Jung-eun (Kor) 21-14, 21-16; Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt He Hanbin-Yu Yang (Chn) 11-21, 21-19, 22-20; Nathan Robertson-Jenny Wallwork (Eng) bt Sudket Prapakamol-T. Saralee (Tha) 21-15, 21-14.