Carolina Marin and Viktor Axelsen smash their way into semis

The two most high-profile gamers within the ongoing BWF World Tour Super 300 Barcelona Spain Masters match – native favorite Carolina Marin and Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen – have made their way into the last-Four stage of the match with spectacular victories in their respective quarter-finals.

The largest draw of the match, three-time World Champion and present Olympic Champion Marin, had been ruthless in her earlier two matches. She continued that nice type with a complete 21-18, 21-12 win over Thailand’s Phittayaporn Chaiwan. The Spanish legend simply took 38 minutes to win the match and transfer on to the semis.

But Marin is just not executed but with Thai gamers. Her subsequent match, the semi-final, can even be towards a participant from the identical nationality – Supanida Katethong, who’s ranked 53 in world and 43 in World Tour rankings. Needless to say, Marin is the overwhelming favorite.

The different World Champion within the singles class – Axelsen – was much more devastating in his match. Facing his compatriot Jan O Jorgensen, the previous World no. 1 allowed his opponent to attain solely 13 factors throughout video games and defeated him 21-8, 21-5 in simply 25 minutes.

The Dane’s subsequent opponent is Malaysia’s, Daren Liew. The latter really defeated one other Danish participant Rasmus Gemke 16-21, 21-17, 21-17, to guide his spot within the final 4.

It wasn’t all that dangerous a day for Thailand gamers. Their two strongest singles gamers left within the draw, each in ladies’s singles, Busanan Ongbamrungphan, seeded third, and Pornpawee Chochuwong, seeded sixth, gained their respective matches to guide their spots within the final 4.

Busanan defeated India’s former World no. 1 Saina Nehwal, seeded fifth, 22-20, 21-19, whereas Pornpawee obtained the higher of Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 22-20, 21-9. These two Thai girls will face one another within the semis. In truth, apart from Marin, all the opposite semifinalists left on this division are Thais.

Among males additionally, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, simply 18 years of age, and one other Thai participant gained his quarterfinal match towards India’s Sameer Verma 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 to progress. But Indian participation stays within the match because of Ajay Jayaram who obtained the higher of France’s Thomas Rouxel 21-14, 21-15.

In the doubles classes, the highest seeds of males’s doubles and ladies’s doubles classes gained their respective matches whereas the highest seeds of blended doubles had been knocked out.

The pairing of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia gained their ladies’s doubles match towards the eighth-seeded pair of Hsu Ya Ching and Hu Ling Fang of Chinese Taipei 20-22, 21-11, 21-19. In males’s doubles, top-seeded pair of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Taipei defeated their compatriots Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng 21-12, 21-18.

The prime seeds in blended doubles although, Goh Sun Huat and Lai Shavon Jemie of Malaysia misplaced to Kim Sa Rang and Kim Ha Na of South Korea 21-18, 21-18. 

Published 22 Feb 2020, 06:20 IST