LONDON: World number one Viktor Axelsen crashed out of the All England Open on Friday as Indonesian fifth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting roared back to win their quarter-final 8-21, 21-18, 21-19.
Denmark’s Axelsen, who was the champion in 2020 and 2022, started smoothly but Ginting levelled the match at the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event in Birmingham, paving the way for a dramatic decider.
Ginting looked set to wrap up the match relatively comfortably when he forged into an 18-12 lead but Axelsen won six straight points to level at 18-18.
However, Ginting kept his nerve to prevail 21-19.
In Saturday’s semi-final he will face unseeded Frenchman Christo Popov, who avenged the defeat of his brother, beating Koki Watanabe in straight games a day after the Japanese had seen off Toma Junior Popov.
In the women’s draw, South Korea’s world number one An Se-young, yet to drop a game at the tournament, saw off Chinese eighth seed Han Yue 21-16, 21-19 and will meet Japanese fourth-seed Akane Yamaguchi in the last four.
Third seed Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan came from behind to take a tight decider 22-20 against China’s He Bingjiao. –AFP
