Badminton-China and Japan cruise into Sudirman cup semifinals

XIAMEN: Hosts and defending champions China booked their place in badminton’s Sudirman Cup semifinals with a 3-0 win over Malaysia on Friday, while Japan also advanced after beating Taiwan in the quarter-finals by the same score.
The biennial mixed team championship saw a rematch between world number four mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei from Malaysia and China’s Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping. While the Malaysian pair won at the Paris Games, they couldn’t repeat the feat as they went down 21-17 21-17 in the opener.
Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao, facing world number one Shi Yu Qi for the first time, was outclassed 21-6 21-14 in the men’s singles.

Compatriot Karupathevan Letshanaa later suffered a 21-8 21-7 loss to Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei in the women’s singles.
With the result sealed in just under two hours, the men’s and women’s doubles were not contested. Malaysia, who claimed bronze in the last two editions, have now lost all of their five Sudirman Cup meetings to date against 13-times champions China.
Japan took three hours to defeat Taiwan 3-0.