Lee Jhe-Huei and Hsu Ya Ching stormed into the YONEX Canada Open 2023 semifinals, bagging arguably the biggest result of their partnership in the process by knocking out mixed doubles first seeds Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino.

The Chinese Taipei pair, who have not qualified for an HSBC BWF World Tour last four match since losing to Goh Soon Huat/Lai Shevon Jemie at the 2019 Korea Open, defeated Watanabe/Higashino 21-18 26-24 in 37 minutes.

While they led the opener from interval to finish, the second game was more dramatic; the world No.47s squandered two match points at 20-18, then allowed the lead to change hands before finally pipping their Japanese opponents with three straight winners from 24-23 down.

The duo, whose only World Tour title also came in this region four years ago at the Super 300 US Open, will now contest their first Super 500 semifinal against another unheralded pair – Mathias Thyrri/Amalie Magelund. The Danes also stunned a seeded (No.3) Japanese tandem in Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsutomo.

Highlights

• All the men’s singles matches went the distance, with Kodai Naraoka’s 21-18 18-21 21-14 win over Lei Lan Xi in 77 minutes lasting the longest. The Japanese next faces 2019 winner Li Shi Feng, who spent a minute less on court against Koki Watanabe.
• Akane Yamaguchi and Pusarla V. Sindhu will play a blockbuster semifinal after coming through their tests in straight games. Although Pusarla lost their most recent meeting a month ago at the Singapore Open, the Indian leads the post-pandemic head-to-head 4-3.
• Ratchanok Intanon awaits the winner in the final after her semifinal opponent Beiwen Zhang withdrew injured.

 

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• In men’s doubles, the first and second seeds fell. Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi went down 22-20 21-18 to compatriots Akira Koga/Taichi Saito while Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan’s 21-17 21-13 loss to Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-lin ended their tournament debut in the quarterfinals.
• Japan are assured of finalists in women’s doubles – Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida take on Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota in one of the semifinals. With Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara still in the mix, the title match could be all-Japanese.

→ Results (Quarterfinals)

→ Order of play (Semifinals)