BADMINTON/Taiwan's Chiu advances to semifinals at Macau Open

Taipei, Sept. 27 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton player Chiu Pin-chian (邱品蒨) secured a semifinal berth in the women's singles at the 2024 Macau Open following a straight-game victory over her Japanese opponent on Friday.

Chiu, ranked 38th in the world, defeated Riko Gunji 21-18, 21-12 in 43 minutes at the Macao East Asian Games Dome for her second win against the Japanese player in their third encounter.

"She has gained more confidence over the past few international tournaments and is finding her tempo. I believe she will keep getting better," said Chen Shih-ying (陳詩盈), Chiu's coach.

At 25, Chiu is the youngest among Taiwan's six highest ranked female shuttlers.

In the semifinals of the Super 300 tournament, she will face sixth seed and world No. 32 Gao Fangjie (高昉潔) of China, whom she lost to in their only previous match in 2022.

Chiu's best performance at a Super 300 level tournament -- a lower level event used by second-tier players to gain ranking points -- this year was at the Taipei Open, where she lost in the semifinals.

Lin Hsiang-ti (林湘緹), at 49th in the world and the lowest-ranked of Taiwan's six top women players, also reached the semifinals in the Macau tournament, defeating Wu Luoyu (鄔洛愉) of China 23-21, 21-12 in 49 minutes.

Lin, who is about six months older than Chiu, prevailed in a tight first game after saving a game point and then maintained a steady lead throughout the second game to clinch victory.

Her next opponent will be Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan, who finished second in last week's Super 1000 Victor China Open and reached the semifinals of the Super 500 Hong Kong Open the week before.