Thailand's Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai reached the women's doubles semi-finals after defeating Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 16-21, 21-17, 21-18 at the Indonesia Masters yesterday.
The fourth seeds Thais needed one hour and 24 minutes to finish off the seventh-seeded home players at the US$420,000 tournament in Jakarta.
In today's last four, Jongkolphan and Rawinda take on China's Liu Shengshu and Zhang Shuxian who defeated compatriots Tan Ning and Xia Yuting 21-15, 14-21, 21-8 in the quarter-finals of the Super 500 event.
In the women's singles, sixth seed Yang Zhiyi was much too strong for Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong. The Chinese won 21-12, 21-6 in just 34 minutes.
Seventh seed Carolina Marin of Spain defeated Line Christophersen from Denmark 22-20, 21-9.
Chinese eighth seed Han Yue came from behind to beat Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 19-21, 21-8, 21-16.
Fifth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand lost to third seed An Se-Young of South Korea 21-15, 21-15.
Princess Sirivannavari event
The Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters will be held in Bangkok next week, organisers said yesterday.
The US$210,000 Super 300 event will be held at Nimibutr Stadium from Jan 31-Feb 5, Badminton Association of Thailand president Patama Leeswadtrakul said.
Thai athletes are the top seeds in three categories -- Ratchanok in the women's singles, Jongkolphan and Rawinda in the women's doubles and Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the men's singles.
Kunlavut stunned world No.1 Viktor Axelsen in the India Open final last week.
Both withdrew from this week's Indonesia Masters.
Among the foreign stars are Denmark's Anders Antonsen and Spain's Marin.
Tickets starting from 100 baht are available at Thai Ticket Major outlets.