Led by former world no. 1 Akane Yamaguchi, Japan dominated Indonesia, 3-0, and booked its place in the semifinals of the 2020 SMART Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships Friday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Yamaguchi needed just 34 minutes to dispatch Gregoria Tunjung, 21-9, 21-15, to open up the day for the top-seeded squad in the tournament backed by SMART Communications, Inc., MVP Sports Foundation, Leisure and Resorts World Corporation, Cignal, and TV5.
Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota then raised the reigning champions lead to 2-0 with a 21-19, 21-15 win in the doubles before Sayaka Takahashi wrapped up the tie with a 21-13, 21-14 win over Ruselli Hartawan.
In the semis, Japan will take on Malaysia, which downed Chinese Taipei, 3-1.
Pearly Tan and Muralitharan Thinaah clinched the tie for the Southeast Asians after coming back against Cheng Chi Ya and Liu Chao-Yun, 18-21, 21-17, 21-18, in the second doubles match.
Soniia Cheah emerged from that deciding frame at 22-20 to take the first singles match after she split the first two frames with Pai Yu Po, 21-14, 17-21. Hsu Ya Ching and Hu Ling Fang then swept Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Meng Yean, 21-14, 21-14, to level the tie.
Goh Jin Wei restored Malaysia’s lead with the second singles win, 21-23, 21-8, 21-12, against Chiang Ying Li.
Meanwhile, Thailand and Korea booked their places in the other semifinal tie with similar 3-0 sweeps of Kazakhstan and Singapore, respectively.
