Pornpawee out, mixed pair flying

Second seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai defeated Lee Jhe-huei and Hsu Ya-ching of Taiwan 2-0 in the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open yesterday.

Thailand’s top mixed doubles duo were leading 21-9, 11-3 when the Taiwanese retired in the World Tour Super 1000 event at Odense Sports Park.

In today’s semi-finals, they will meet third seeds Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia or China’s Feng Yanzhe/Du Yue.

In the women’s singles, second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan proved too strong for Pornpawee Chochuwong, coming from behind to beat the Thai 2-1.

Seventh seed Pornpawee, who defeated Japan’s Aya Ohori in the previous round, got off to a good start against Yamaguchi, winning the first game 21-17.

However, the Japanese comfortably took the next two games 21-13, 21-11 to reach the semi-finals.

In another women’s quarter-final, sixth seed He Bingjiao of China cruised past compatriot Wang Zhiyi 21-16, 21-14.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal and Pusarla Sindhu have raised the bar for Indian badminton but the next generation will struggle to match their success until they improve physically, former All England champion Prakash Padukone said.

“There is a big gap. That is a fact,” the 66-year-old said. “I think the standard generally was very low but these two took it to a different level altogether. They’ve raised the bar so high that it seems almost impossible for anyone [to match].”