An Se-young has fond memories during the Indonesia Open 2022. Last year, she emerged as the women's singles champion after defeating Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the final in Bali. Now, the 20-year-old badminton player from South Korea is back in the game. Se-young's steps have reached the quarter-finals after struggling to beat Kristy Gilmour from Scotland with three games 17-21, 21-16, 21-19. This makes Se-young never lose to Gilmour in five matches.
To be able to reach the semifinals, Se-young must beat He Bingjiao from China, who in the second round easily beat Busanan Ongbamrungphan from Thailand, 21-9, 21-9. To Se-young, Bing Jiao can be a formidable opponent. How could she not, even though her rank was below 9, she always won over Se-young, ranked third, in three matches. In addition to that match record, Se-young's condition is also still not as solid after retiring in the last round 16 of the Indonesia Masters 2022 last week when he met Iris Wang of the United States in the second game at points 1-4 after losing the first game 19-21.
Meanwhile, the first seed Akane Yamaguchi from Japan did not experience difficulties until the quarter-finals. The first seed only needed 20 minutes to beat her own teammate Sayaka Takahashi 21-11, 5-1. The second game was discontinued due to Takahashi's injury. In the quarter-finals, Akane Yamaguchi will meet China's Wang Zhiyi, who in the second round defeated former Olympic champion and former world champion Carolina Marin of Spain 21-17, 21-18. It is no doubt that Wang Zhiyi, ranked 14th in the world, could make another surprise. Previously, she always won against Akane Yamaguchi in two matches. The other quarter-final will pit Nozomi Okuhara, the sixth seed from Japan, with fourth seed from China Chen Yufei and second seed from Taiwan Tai Tzu Ying against Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark.
Meantime, in the men's singles, an exciting duel will be presented between the two neighboring badminton players, Loh Kean Yew, the 2021 world champion from Singapore, against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, the sixth seed. Of the five matches, Zii Jia able tp won three times. The last meeting took place in the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2022 last February and Zii Jia won 21-6, 21-14. Apart from Loh Kean Yew and Lee Zii Jia, the other match that will attract the attention of the audience will be the match between Anthony Sinisuka Ginting from Indonesia and the top seed, Viktor Axelsen from Denmark. Public support is expected to lift the spirit of Anthony, who has only won four of 11 matches against Axelsen, who is also the champion of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Anthony's victory is expected to heal the disappointment from th the home crowd fans after Indonesia's mainstay doubles, the first seed Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, lost in straight games 14-21, 12-21 to South Korean representatives Kang Min-hyuk/Seo Seung-jae. This is the first match between the two couples. In the quarter-finals, Kang Min-hyuk/Seo Seung-jae will meet their compatriots Choi Sol-gyu/Kim Won-ho who in the round of 16 won 21-12, 21-18 over Japanese doubles Akira Koga/Taichi Saito.
In the semifinals, representatives of South Korea will await the winner of the match between Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi, the third seed from Japan, against the eighth seed from Denmark Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen. In the other two quarter-finals, two representatives of Indonesia will struggle to meet each other in the semifinals. Pramudya Kusumawardhana/Yeremia Rambitan will fight to beat Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik. The two pairs met once, namely in the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2022 final and won by Pramudya Kusumawardhana/Yeremia Rambitan with two straight games 23-21, 21-10. Another host pair, Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, met the Chinese doubles who started from the qualifying rounds Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, the pair who in the first round made a surprise by overthrowing second seed Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan from Indonesia. Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, who is now ranked 6th in the world, met once and won over Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, ranked 75th in the world.
In the women's doubles category, the top seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan from China still walked easily into the quarter-finals. In the round of 16, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist only needed 39 minutes to beat Indian doubles Aswini Ponnappa/Nelakurihi Reddy 21-16, 21-13. This victory brought Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan to meet the seventh seed of Thailand, Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai. Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan is very domineering over their opponent. They have never lost in 13 matches.
In the bottom group of the women’s doubles, the new Indonesian pair Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia will try to beat the second seed Lee So-hee/Shin Seung-chan from South Korea. At the Indonesia Masters 2022 last week, Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia were able to advance to the final. The other two quarter-finals pitted Du Yue/Lin Wenmei of China against sixth-seeded Japanese pair Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan and Jeong Na-eun/Kim Hye-jeong with Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota, the fourth seed of Japan.
For the mixed doubles, the second seed from China Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong will be challenged by the Danish doubles Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Boje. The two pairs met once and Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong won the game at the Indonesia Masters 2020. It is very likely that in the semifinals, they will meet their own colleagues Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping who in the quarter-finals will face Chen Tang Jie/Valeree Siow from Malaysia. In this number, top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai from Thailand were immediately eliminated in the first round
