Long wait for revenge ends

A long-awaited win against He Zhuojia has finally arrived for Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa with her five-year wait drawing to a close.

Suffering defeat in her previous three meetings with the young Chinese player, including a quarter-finals loss at the 2018 World Tour Grand Finals, but top seed Ishikawa was on another level today needing just five games to seal her spot in the women’s singles semi-finals (11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 11-9).

Timo Boll reacts

Following a tough match with Lee Sangsu, Timo Boll is relieved to make it through to the last four but is weary of the challenge that lies ahead of him:

“I think that I showed a great performance and fighting spirit today. But not only me Lee also played today at a really high level. For me, it was hard to change my tactics after being 1-3 down. I tried to survive, tried to win easy points and somehow I stayed in the game. He played very strong from both sides so mentally it was hard to keep the concentration high. I tried to place the ball cleverly and to disturb his rhythm. Somehow I managed it but in the meantime I was really struggling and I thought “oh my goodness he is just too good today!”. The semi-final will be really tough again. I will face Lin Yun-Ju, who is the upcoming star of our sport. Two years ago I was able to beat him but since that he made a big step forward. This time it will be another player standing against me.” Timo Boll

Match points saved, Timo extends stay

German legend Timo Boll will contest the men’s singles semi-finals following a narrow 4-3 win against Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu.

Down 1-3 on the scoreboard but Boll pulled one back in game five before saving two match points in game six, rescuing the situation from 8-10 behind to win 12-10. Successfully forcing a deciding game Boll then held match point opportunities of his own after gaining a 10-7 lead. Lee managed to salvage one point but couldn’t bridge the gap any further as Boll survived a severe test (6-11, 9-11, 15-13, 12-14, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8).

Lin Yun-Ju outclasses Japanese qualifier

Another fine display, Lin Yun-Ju looks to be an unstoppable force in Olomouc after the Chinese Taipei star successfully booked his spot in the men’s singles semi-finals in no time at all.

In a match that lasted just over 27 minutes in total Lin produced a performance well beyond his years, showing great composure to bring Yuki Hirano’s wonderful run to an end with a powerful 4-0 victory over the Japanese qualifier (11-1, 11-9, 11-7, 11-7).

And the action continues!

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