BADMINTON/Lee Chia-hao advances to men's singles semifinals at All England Open

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Taiwanese shuttler Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Friday defeated his opponent to advance to the semifinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships, his best performance in a Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 1000 event.

Ranked world No. 22 in the men's singles by the BWF, Lee bested Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-9, 21-18 in the quarterfinals played at the Utilita Arena Birmingham.

The Taiwanese shuttler came out strong in the opener, tying 4-4 before seizing several points consecutively to clinch the first game.

Despite trailing 3-8 early in the second, Lee quickly regained his momentum and rallied to seal the match with a narrow victory over Nishimoto.

With the win, Lee also became the second Taiwanese male player to reach the men's singles semifinals of the All England Open after veteran Chou Tien-chen (周天成) did so in 2017, 2020, and 2022.

The 25-year-old Lee will next face France's rising star shuttler Alex Lanier, who just won the Orléans Masters title last week in France.

In other matches, Taiwanese men's doubles Lee Jhe-huei (李哲輝) and Yang Po-hsuan (楊博軒) were ousted in the Birmingham tournament after losing 11-21, 22-20, 20-22 to Indonesians Bagas Maulana and Leo Rolly Carnando in the quarterfinals.

The All England Open Badminton Championships is being held from March 11-16.

(By Huang Chiao-wen and Ko Lin)

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