Badminton: Semifinal thriller on cards

Top seed Hsu Jen Hao of Taiwan has advanced to the semifinals. Photo / Nick Reed

Former world No 1 player Lee Hyun Il will square off with top seed Hsu Jen Hao of Taiwan in what promises to be a semifinal thriller at the New Zealand Open badminton tournament in Auckland.

Hyun Il, 35, produced a vintage quarter-final performance to beat China's Huang Yuxiang, the third seed playing the big points better, especially in the closing stages of the deciding game to win 16-21 21-18 21-15 at North Shore Events Centre.

''To start I was struggling but now I am feeling good and this was a good match," Hyun Il said.

Hsu ground out a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Angus Ng, was typically focused in his performance, grinding out a straight games win over Angus Ng (HKG), 21-19 21-18.

"I had a really long match yesterday so today I was already tired, but I played well and in the second game had the willpower to see it through," Hsu said.

The second semifinal will be between China's Qiao Bin and seventh seeded Thai Boonsak Ponsana.

Qiao, impressive all week dropping only one game, beat 12th seed Mohammad Abdul Latif of Malaysia 21-15 21-16.

Ponsana made short work of 16th-seeded Malaysian Soon Huat Goh, 21-18 21-13.

The women's singles semifinals at the Sky City-sponsored $US120,000 grand prix event will feature two Japanese players, one from Hong Kong and one from China.

Hong Kong's Ngan Yi Cheung won a draining quarter-final against Indonesia's Maria Febe Kusumastuti (INA), 15-21 21-19 21-11 with the game coming down to who could keep a level head under pressure and maintain their fitness. Fifth seed Cheung was sure her superior conditioning played a part in deciding the match.

"I won the game because I was tough enough to chase back after lagging behind in the second game. Her fitness seemed to slow down a bit in the last game so I used this to my advantage and kept pushing by playing at a faster speed," she said.

Japan's Saene Kawakami faces Cheung in one semifinal after beating the sole surviving Australian Wendy Chen, 21-15 21-10.

Aya Ohori of Japan beat China's Li Yun in three games and now faces another Chinese player He Bing Jiao, who beat Japan's Natsuki Nidaira 21-19 22-20.