GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's Chen Long and Chen Yufei both won in the third round of group phase and reached the last four in the men's and women's singles respectively at BWF World Tour Finals 2019 here on Friday.
Chen Long fought 52 minutes to eliminate world No. 2 Chou Tienchen of Chinese Taipei in Group B. Chen took the first set 21-15. Chou made a strong comeback in the second one and took the lead 16-11. Chen, who won all their previous eight meetings, tied the score 17-17 and went on to seal the victory 21-19.
With two wins and one loss in the group phase, Chen moved into the semifinals. According to the draw held after Friday's games, the home favorite will play Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting from the same group, who contributed to Chen's only loss one day ago.
In Group A, world No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan cruised past Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-14, 21-14, while Wang Tzuwei of Chinese Taipei was defeated by Anders Antonsen of Denmark after a 82-minute battle. But Wang finally entered the last four and will contend with Momota on Saturday.
In the women's singles, Chen Yufei breezed past Japan's Akane Yamaguchi 21-14, 21-10 and the two will compete again in the semifinals.
Another last four game will be held between Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and Tai Tzuying of Chinese Taipei, who overcame Thai Ratchanok Intanon and Busanan Ongbamrungphan respectively on Friday.
Two Chinese pairs Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping and Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong both entered the mixed doubles semifinals after beating Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand and Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia respectively at the third round.
In the women's doubles, Japan's Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota beat China's Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan 21-10, 21-13, powering through to the semifinals with three consecutive wins.
Japan's Hiroyuku Endo/Yuta Watanabe also claimed their third win after ousting China's Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen 21-12, 21-11, booking their spot in the last four of the men's doubles.
