Olympics and Paralympics
Akane Yamaguchi and Aya Ohori Advance to Quarterfinals in Badminton Singles
Japanese badminton medal hopeful Yamaguchi faces a stiff test in the Olympic quarterfinals against South Korea's Se Young An, the top women's singles seed.
Akane Yamaguchi and Aya Ohori moved into the women's badminton singles quarterfinals with victories in their round of 16 matches on Thursday, August 1 in Paris.
Yamaguchi, the fifth seed in the Olympic tournament, dispatched Thailand's Supanida Katethong 21-6, 21-13, while Ohori bested Singapore's Jia Min Yeo 11-21, 21-14, 24-22 at Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
Yamaguchi will take on longtime rival and top seed Se Young An of South Korea in the quarterfinals on Saturday, August 3, while the eighth-seeded Ohori will battle 14th seed Carolina Marin of Spain the same day.
Mixed Doubles Badminton Stars Watanabe, Higashino Earn Bronze Medal
In mixed doubles action later on Thursday, the fourth-seeded team of Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino defeated Thailand's Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai 23-21, 21-14 to gain a berth in the semifinals. But they were beaten in their last four match by top-seeded China's Si Wei Zheng and Ya Qiong Huang 21-14, 21-15.
Watanabe and Higashino then faced South Korea's Seung Jae Seo and Yu Jung Chae, the third seeds, in the bronze medal match on Friday afternoon in the French capital. (It started at 10 PM JST).
The Japan duo defeated the South Koreans 21-13, 22-20.
In the first set, the longest rally was 65 strokes.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Watanabe and Higashino also claimed the bronze medal.
Matsuyama, Shida Drop Women's Doubles Semifinal Match to Chinese Pair
In early action on Friday, August 2, Japan's women's doubles team of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida lost to China's Sheng Shu Liu and Ning Tan 21-16, 21-19 in the semifinals.
Matsuyama and Shida, the fourth seeds, fell behind early in both sets and were unable to make up the deficits against the third-seeded Liu and Tan in a match that featured some good rallies.
"They were better than us in every respect," Shida said, according to Kyodo News.
Matsuyama said, "They seized the initiative and we allowed them to dictate the pace of the match. When we did catch up, that next point was just so hard for us."
The Japanese pair will face Malaysia's unseeded Pearly Tan and Muralitharan Thinaah in the bronze-medal match on Saturday, August 3.
Liu and Tan will play top-seeded compatriots Qing Chen Chen and Yi Fan Jia for the gold on Saturday. Chen and Jia beat Tan and Thinaah in three sets (21-12, 18-21, 21-15) in their semifinal.
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Author: Jack Gallagher
The author is a veteran sports journalist and one of the world's foremost figure skating experts. Find articles and podcasts by Jack on his author page, and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @sportsjapan.