PARIS: Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen and Japan's Akane Yamaguchi breezed through to the Paris Olympics badminton quarter-finals on Thursday, while Malaysia had three major victories and India's PV Sindhu and both of South Korea's women's doubles teams were knocked out.
Japan's men's singles players were also taken out in the round of 16 at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, with Kenta Nishimoto losing to Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn 16-21 21-14 21-12 and world number five Kodai Naraoka falling 21-12 21-16 to Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen.
Chou, a former world number two men's singles player, was diagnosed with cancer in 2023 and underwent surgery to remove part of his colon. He's come back swinging this year, pushing himself hard to catch up and is now ranked 11th.
"I cannot believe I am here," said an emotional Chou. "I thank god for everything. I feel totally fine."
Sindhu lost 19-21 14-21 to China's He Bingjiao in a match of delicate net-game, powerful smashes and clever footwork.
Rio gold medallist Carolina Marin had a close shave against American world number 10 Beiwen Zhang, with the Spanish shuttler rallying for a 21-12 9-21 18-21 win after dropping the first game. Akane Yamaguchi of Japan trounced Thailand's Supanida Katethong 21-6 21-13 in 33 minutes.
The day started with women's doubles world number 12 Malaysia's Thinaah Muralitharan and Pearly Tan drilling through South Korea's Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong 12-21 13-21 in the quarter-finals.
Muralitharan and her coach fell to their knees screaming when they won the last point, and Tan had to bodily drag her partner up from the ground into a hug.
South Korea took another blow when their second women's doubles team - world number two Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee - lost to China's Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, ranked third, in a battle that ended 21-9 21-13.
The five best men's doubles teams in the world were on the court together in the second session on Thursday: pairs from China, South Korea, India, Denmark and Malaysia.
Ranked number one, China's Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang got through to the semi-finals after eking out a 22-24 22-20 win over seventh-ranked Indonesian pair Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto.
World number two team Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen of Denmark beat South Korean duo Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae, 21-19 22-20. They were point-for-point before the Danes pushed through and Rasmussen picked Astrup up into a full-body hug.
With powerful, well-aimed smashes one after the other, India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their first game 21-13 against Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi-Yik in less than 20 minutes.
Malaysia rallied in the second game, however, staying ahead for most of it to win 14-21. In a thrilling neck-and-neck third game, Malaysia came out on top, winning 21-16 and securing their place in the semis. --REUTERS