Badminton champs out as shocks roll in Singapore

Japan's Kento Momota thrashed Singapore Open title-holder Simon Santoso to reach his first badminton Superseries final on Saturday, as women's champion Wang Yihan also crashed out.

Momota, 21, took just 37 minutes to win 21-10, 21-13 against Indonesia's Santoso, who was troubled by a knee injury in the second game and sprayed unforced errors.

Momota, who benefited from a walkover from H.S. Prannoy on Friday, said he came into the match with a special gameplan against last year's surprise winner from Indonesia.

"Simon is very good at the net so I just try to keep playing the long rallies and not try to rush the game," said the world number 10.

During the second game, Santoso was seen clutching his knee after a rally and asked for treatment. He said that the injury played on his mind during the rest of the match.

"When he played to the right back court, my knee had a little shock and I became quite scared and the points after that, (the injury) affected me when I am moving forward," he said.

"In the end, my knee was fine but I was trailing by quite a lot already."

Momota will next meet Hong Kong's Hu Yun, who is also gunning for his first Superseries title after shocking China's world number one Chen Long in the second round.

Hu, the world number 13, continued his strong run when he subdued Parupalli Kashyap of India 20-22, 21-11, 21-14 to book his spot in the final.

Earlier, Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying stunned Chinese women’s champion Wang 16-21, 21-9, 14-21 to set up a final against world number 11 Sun Yu.

"The standard between Wang Yihan and I is quite large, so I actually thought that it's the end for me today," shrugged Tai.

The other women's semi was also an upset as Sun beat Chinese compatriot and second seed Wang Shixian 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 to reach her first Singapore Open final.
Source: AFP