All Thai players bowed out in the semi-finals of the US$355,000 Singapore Open badminton tournament yesterday.
Second seed Nitchaon Jindapol, who was bidding to win her second title of the year this week, was upset by seventh seed Gao Fengjie of China 15-21, 21-12, 14-21 in the women's singles event of the BWF World Tour Super 500 event at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Gao will face fifth seed Sayaka Takahashi of Japan in today's title showdown. The Japanese knocked out Han Yue of China 21-18, 21-14 in the other semi-final.
Top seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai also exited the tournament after losing to Japanese fifth seeds Ayako Sakuramoto and Yukiko Takahata 17-21, 19-21 in the last four round of the women's doubles event.
Sakuramoto and Takahata face fellow Japanese Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the final today. Matsuyama and Shida battled past Isabel Herttrich and Carla Nelte of Germany 21-18, 17-21, 21-16.
Mixed doubles stars Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai bowed out to second seeds Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia 18-21, 14-21.
The Malaysian pair will take on top seeds Tontawi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir in today's title match. Ahmad and Natsir won an all-Indonesian clash against Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Winny Oktavina Kandow 26-24, 21-17.
The men's singles final showdown will be an all-Taiwanese affair pitting top seed Chou Tien-chen against Hsu Jen-hao.
Chou scraped past Qiao Bin of China 21-12, 18-21, 21-16, while Hsu defeated Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam 21-15, 21-11 in yesterday's semi-finals.
In the men's doubles event, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan defeated Indonesian compatriots Angga Pratama and Rian Agung Saputro in the first semi-final.
They will meet the winners of the all-Chinese semi-final clash between Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong and Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu.
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