At the end of a day in which Lauren Lam/Allison Lee had pulled off the sensational upset of third seeds Baek Na Na/Lee So Hee, there was more good news for USA at the DAIHATSU Japan Open 2026.

Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith followed up in the last match with an upset of their own, knocking out world No.16 Daniel Lundgaard/Mads Vestergaard in straight games. For Team USA, it couldn’t have been scripted better, with both pairs making the quarterfinals of an HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 event for the first time.

Lam and Lee were a game and 1-9 down to world No.3 Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee before staging the turnaround. Chipping away at the deficit and pulling level at 12, the underdogs gained in confidence and had the Koreans under pressure.

The third game was all one-way traffic with Baek and Lee unsure of how to contain the surge of their opponents, and the world No.21 pair came away winners at 9-21 21-18 21-12.

”We didn’t have a good start,” said Lam. “And then, in the second, we were down 9-1, and I just told Allison to just fight, just one point at a time. And then slowly, point after point we kept getting our momentum. Honestly, it was pretty nerve-racking, it was really tough.

“Once I was in it, I wasn’t really thinking about anything, because I just kept telling myself to keep going, keep going, keep focusing. It’s a lot of mental. In the third game, even though it was 12, you never really know what’s going to happen. At 19 or 20 it’s the hardest point mentally.”

“It’s one of our biggest wins, it just feels very surreal,” said Lee. “We play these players all the time. So I think we just had to learn how to adapt. Honestly, coming into the match, we were a little bit overwhelmed. I mean they’re No.3, we’re like, we’re the underdogs and we just played safe and passive.

“But then with point after point, we kept fighting, challenge after challenge, we challenged many shots. We thought we we can really do this; after that we just kept going, kept our focus, and I think that led to the win.”

World No.17 Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith had a quicker path to the quarterfinals. Lundgaard and Vestergaard, who won the Malaysia Masters in June, were shut out of the contest in just 35 minutes, 21-15 21-12.

“Last year we were really close to the quarters here, so it feels good to get it this time. We play pretty well. They’ve been doing well this year. We had a good strategy, because they like to come up and attack the net, so we just tried to play past them, so that worked in our favour,” said Smith.

“Double quarters (for USA) is pretty good. At the moment I’m not feeling anything — I’m just super-tired. We’ve been waiting for the match the whole day, because we saw we were last, I was a little anxious and nervous, but once I was on court it all went away.”

Brian Yang Stretches Shi

Pan Am looked set for more great news, with Brian Yang staying toe-to-toe with Shi Yu Qi, but the top seed fired the big weapons when he had to, and squeezed out a 16-21 21-19 21-18 victory.

Yang admitted that Shi’s ability to get the lifts for his smash was one of his special qualities.

“His front court ability to spin, get the lift and his attack is just world-class, he’s No.1 for a reason,” said Yang. “Maybe in the earlier stages of the game, he was struggling a bit with his feeling and his aim. Once you hit 15 and later, that’s where you want to be, especially for him and I was unable to deal with it.

“I had chances to close it out, I was leading most of the second game, I had 19-17, but towards the end, once I started getting closer to 21, I was overthinking and got a bit nervous. I made a lot of easy mistakes. My hands were getting really tight, and overthinking and my touch was off the last few points.”

Other Highlights

» Jimmy Wong/Cheng Su Yin pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the day, beating sixth seeds Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue 23-21 24-22 after trailing 5-11 in the second game.

» Alex Lanier was another French casualty, as the No.7 seed crashed out to Alwi Farhan 9-21 21-14 21-16.

» However, Lanier’s compatriot Christo Popov overcame an early setback against Leong Jun Hao to pull through comfortably at the end, 16-21 21-11 21-17.

What They Said

“Quite a big one, we were lucky. On the crucial points, it’s about how daring you are, how strong is your mentality. I kept telling her, because she was a bit nervous, I told myself too – ‘Don’t think too much’. That’s how I could calm myself.” – Jimmy Wong, after he and Cheng Su Yin beat Gicquel/Delrue

“It only took two minutes, and then it was too far to catch up. That’s where it’s all on me. She also put a lot of pressure. I felt I had to keep hitting high quality shots, and that forced a lot of errors and made me nervous at the end. All her shots are aggressive. It was all very quick – so it was either I die or she dies. Keeping the shuttle in was tough.” – Michelle Li, after losing to Sim Yu Jin

“Overall it’s been good. I’m happy with the way I’m playing. There is still a month to go for the World Championships, and I’m happy it’s happening on home ground. These wins will give me the confidence, so this matters a lot.” – Pusarla V Sindhu, after beating Han Yue

→Results (Round 2)