MS Day 4 : CHOU Tien Chen and Kento MOMOTA qualified !

CHOU Tien Chen once again delivered an outstanding performance. The world number 4 won an epic 1h20 battle against Kenta NISHIMOTO. He will face the surprising HEO Kwanghee (world n°34). The seeded number 1 Kento MOMOTA also joined the semi-finals where he will have to battle against his country fellow Kenta TSUNEYAMA to reach a second final in two weeks.

After his epic battle against Brice LEVERDEZ, question was : did CHOU Tien Chen recover enough to efficiently compete against Kenta NISHIMOTO (world no 16, Japan) who had an “easy” win yesterday (21/12 21/9) ? Answer is clearly YES ! The big rally at 6/5 in the first set won by the Taiwanese was a prelude to what happened next. Indeed, set 1 was tight with a lot of rallies but CHOU managed to always be 3 points ahead to gain it : 21/17. The next set began well for the 2014 French Open winner since he lead 11/7. But the French Open 2017 finalist equalized to 11/11. And with efficient net shot kills, the Japanese pushed the world number 4 (21/19) to a last legendary set. According to the loud and sincere applauses from the audience, this last game rallies were unbelievable. The point won by the Taiwanese at 11/9 is the perfect example of the game intensity since the two players were laying on the ground. It was a point by point fight to cross the line first and like yesterday, it is CHOU Tien Chen who won the race. Two standing ovations in two days, no doubt the French crowd will root for him tomorrow. In mixed zone after the game CHOU gave us his feelings about what happened : “I think god gave me so much confidence today. I knew it would be a hard game before the match so I get mentally prepared. This kind of game brought me back to 2014 when I won. ” Tomorrow he will be challenged by HEO Kwanghee.

SEN(t) back to home

Indeed, the first men single quarter final of the day was opposing Lakshya SEN (world no 24, India) to HEO Kwanghee (world no 34, Korea), two players out of the world top 20. A chance for both of them to be in a Super 750 semifinal. A performance that neither of the players did in the past. The 20 years old Indian began outstandingly : 11/7 at the interlude. But the world number 24 overplayed and made several mistakes giving a chance to his opponent to come back and take the opening game : 21/17. This gave the Korean great confidence and he widely took the control of the next game. SEN had to call for medical assistance twice due to a minor hand injury. It did not help him enough since he lost 21/15. After his performance, HEO was glad in mixed zone : “It is my first time in semifinals in such a big tournament. Since the Olympics I have been able to beat very good players. After my Junior title, I felt my body was not really following my mind. But since the Olympics I felt more relaxed and have been able to play”.

This time Momota did it quick

It did not take too long for Kenta TSUNEYAMA (world no 13, Japan) to defeat LEE Chuk Yiu (world no 17, Hong Kong) : 21/16 21/9. He will have to fight his country fellow and world number 1 Kento MOMOTA tomorrow to reach the final. Indeed, the world champion was facing Shesar Hiren RHUSTAVITO (N.19, Indonesia). After two very long matches, MOMOTA looked like he recovered a bit. Quickly ahead in the first set 14/7, the Japanese was caught up by his challenger 15/15. However, MOMOTA found a way to win the first set : 21/19. Even though the Indonesian committed himself to net shot kills, MOMOTA was better in the rallies and won the following set 21/11. He confessed after the game that : “It was very difficult for me today. It was very important for me to win that first game. It is better for the mental.”