Birmingham: China's Wang Zhiyi and Chen Yufei defeated their respective opponents to reach the women's singles semifinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Friday.
According to Namibia Press Agency, World No. 3 Chen Yufei only needed 51 minutes to overcome Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand with scores of 23-21, 21-11. The Tokyo Olympic gold medalist expressed her strategy focused on patience, stating, "I always tell myself, 'you can do it, you need to trust yourself,' so I kept my patience and won the first game." Chen is set to face top-seed An Se-young of South Korea in the semifinal. This will be their first encounter this year, with their previous 28 matches resulting in 14 wins each.
Wang Zhiyi advanced to the semifinals after a hard-fought victory against Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki, winning 21-13, 8-21, 21-16. As the second seed, Wang is scheduled to face Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the upcoming semifinal.
In the men's singles competition, India's Lakshya Sen continued his impressive run by defeating China's Li Shifeng 21-13, 21-16, after his surprising victory over top seed Shi Yuqi in the first round.
In the men's doubles, China's Chen Boyang and Liu Yi, who were runners-up at the 2025 World Championships, secured a win against Indonesia's Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Rahmat Hidayat with scores of 21-16, 21-10. However, another Chinese duo, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, were defeated by Indonesia's Raymond Indra and Nikolaus Joaquin, losing 21-18, 21-12.
In the women's doubles, China's top seeds Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, along with third seeds Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian, progressed to the semifinals by defeating their respective opponents.
In the mixed doubles category, the Chinese pair Guo Xinwa and Chen Fanghui advanced to the semifinals after a challenging three-game match against Indonesia's Amri Syahnawi and Nita Violina Marwah, winning 21-17, 18-21, 21-15. However, the second-seeded pair Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin fell to French duo Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue, losing 21-16, 21-16.