BWF Hong Kong Open 2024: Jonatan Christie, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, and Viktor Axelsen all into semi-finals
Paris 2024 Olympic champion Axelsen joins the Indonesian duo of Christie and Ginting, as well as Chinese shuttler Lei Lan Xi, in the men's final four of the Hong Kong Open.
Badminton
Jonatan Christie continued his title defence by reaching the BWF Hong Kong Open semi-finals, as the final four of the men's singles was decided on Friday (13 September).
The Indonesian shuttler faced a mighty challenge against fifth seed Naraoka Kodai of Japan, but assumed control of the match with a first-set victory.
Naraoka was in charge of the second and swept past Christie to force a deciding set in Hong Kong, China. But in the end, the defending champion proved too strong to win 21-16, 12-21, 21-15 and advance to the semis.
Christie will face unseeded Lei Lan Xi in the final match of the day on Saturday (14) September, continuing his pursuit of back-to-back World Tour titles in the same event for the first time since 2019.
His Indonesian counterpart and seventh seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting also required three sets, progressing to the semi-final stage after defeating home favourite Jason Gunawan.
In similar vein to Christie, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Ginting won the first and third sets and had to dig deep to see out the result, overcoming his opponent 21-17, 14-21, 21-18.
Ginting will take on the second seed and two-time Olympic champion, Viktor Axelsen, for a place in the Hong Kong Open final.
It was the Dane who had the most straightforward quarter-final of the tournament favourites, enjoying a comfortable 21-15, 21-14 victory against Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Axelsen is gunning for his third title of 2024 and a second on tour, having won the Malaysia Masters in May before defending his Olympic gold at Paris 2024.
In the women’s singles competition, the People’s Republic of China’s Han Yue came from a set down to book her place in the semi-final. The third seed dug deep against Japanese fifth seed Aya Ohori to prevail 17-21 21-9 21-15.
The semi-finals and final of the 2024 Hong Kong Open will be available to stream live on Olympics.com, subject to territorial restrictions.