Chinese Gao Fangjie advances to semis, Lee Chong Wei crashes out of China Open

By Sportswriter Liu Yang

FUZHOU, Nov 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese 19-year-old shuttler Gao Fangjie outplayed the world number two Pusarla V. Sindhu of India in the women's singles quarterfinal of BWF World Superseries Premier China Open here on Friday.

World No. 89, Gao started her games from qualifications on Tuesday and moved forward for four consecutive rounds as dark horse to the semifinals. She was first time playing with number two seed and overwhelmed the Indian strong attacker 21-11, 21-10 within 37 minutes.

"This is my first encounter against Sindhu and I did not feel any burden," said Gao, "the pressure is on her side."

"I felt I was dreaming all the way from qualifications. No matter what her world ranking is, we are equal while standing in court. As a young shuttler, I fight more and anything could happen."

The Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei, seeded seventh, suffered surprising defeat to Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong, China, 12-21, 21-15, 19-21, and failed to fight for a berth of semis.

Angus never even won a set in the previous five encounters against Lee and today is a big day for the 23-year-old Hong Kong shuttler. He told Xinhua he was familiar with Lee's style and prepared a lot.

"I played tough today and kept calm no matter led the points or fell behind. Grabbing the first set gave me lots of confidence and this is the first time for me to win a set over Lee, " said Angus.

"Lee is still the top class shuttler but he does not play as fast and hard as before. Many shuttlers won him this season as his age increases. There are really lots of games for the old veterans like him who seems hard to recover the stamina."

Lee Chong Wei said he did not expect the match was so hard and he seemed not as active and vigorous as before.

"Me and Ka Long, we had met for five times and this is my first loss. I tried to make some changes when I lost confidence in Denmark and France. Sometimes things just did not go as I wish. The youngsters pushed me so much and I did not know how I played in court. The rhymes sometimes just do not fit," said Lee.

Seeded seventh in the women singles, the Chinese rising star He Bingjiao suffered the third loss to the Rio Olympics champion Carolina Marin of Spain, 15-21, 24-22, 20-22.

The 20-year-old He lost the previous two encounters against the world No. 5 Spanish and was very close to the victory of Fuzhou match.

"Maybe I was too hurried and made mistakes in the key moment. I prepared for the hard games today but Marin played more confidently than me," said He. "I did not give up when I fell behind, and I'm satisfied with that. She also made mistakes when I held on. I believed I'd play better next time facing her."

Marin told Xinhua she believed China always has really tough players in women's singles. "Some young players are really good and growing up. I need to give my best to beat them. He is playing with home crowd. It is difficult to control the drift here, and I just keep my focus on what I have to do against her," said the number four seed.

Chinese mixed pair Zhang Nan/Liu Xuanxuan, who crushed number one seed duo Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto of Indonesia in the first round on Wednesday, lost to Tang Chun Man/TSE Ying Suet, Hong Kong, China, 21-14, 15-21, 20-22 in the quarterfinal.

Rio Olympics men's doubles champion Zhang, newly paired with the 17-year-old Liu, told Xinhua he and Liu even did not have the chance to train together before the event.

"We were a bit slacking when we got 6 match points, and we did not expect this result would happen to us. This is Liu' s first premier event and she needs to make progress before her opponents get to know her," said Zhang

Zhang, paired with Liu Cheng as number 5 seed in men's doubles, suffered another exit by the compatriot duo, the number four seed Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen. Zhang/Liu claimed the title in World Championships in August.

"I felt physically good now and hope to play both men's doubles and mixed doubles," said Zhang. "I want to contribute more for the national team."

In addition, the world number five Chen Long defeated his compatriot Shi Yuqi, 21-13, 16-21, 21-14 in men's singles to secure the position in semifinals on Saturday.