Kuai Man ended Miwa Harimoto's bid for a fourth WTT Champions title in a row on Saturday, beating the Japanese teenager 9-11, 11-8, 11-2, 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, while the defending men's champion, Truls Moregard, came from behind to beat Lin Shidong in a seven-game quarter-final.
Four of the eight quarter-finals in Montpellier went to a seventh game. Sun Yingsha beat Japan's Hina Hayata in the longest match of the tournament so far, and all four women's semi-finalists are Chinese.
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Harimoto's run ends
Harimoto, 18, had won the WTT Champions events in Chongqing in March, Yokohama in August and Macau in September. She won the first game against Kuai 11-9 after trailing 4-0, but Kuai took the second and won the third 11-2. Harimoto levelled with an 11-6 fourth game, then trailed 8-3 in the fifth and won six points in a row to lead 9-8. Kuai won the last three points of that game and the sixth 11-6.
Kuai, the fifth seed, plays the Asian champion Chen Yi in Sunday's semi-finals. Chen beat Japan's Hitomi Sato 12-10, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 in the only straight-games quarter-final of the day.
Sun outlasts Hayata
Sun, the second seed, won the first two games against Hayata 11-7, 11-9, and Hayata took the next two, the fourth on extra points. The match then swung game by game until Sun took the seventh 11-9 after one hour 18 minutes 6 seconds. She plays the defending champion, Wang Yidi, in the semi-finals.
Wang beat Chen Xingtong in the first match of the day, 11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 12-14, 12-10, after 67 minutes. Chen took the sixth 14-12 to force a decider, which Wang won 12-10.
Moregard comes back
Moregard lost the first game 11-1 to Lin, the eighth seed, and was 3-2 down after five games. He won the sixth 11-7 and the seventh 11-8, and dropped to the floor at the end. The Swede, 24, is now the only one of the top four men's seeds left in the tournament.
He plays Germany's Patrick Franziska, who beat China's Zhou Qihao 13-15, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10 in the last match of the night. Zhou, who knocked out Félix Lebrun on Friday, took the sixth 12-10, but Franziska won the decider by the same score. The match lasted 65 minutes 48 seconds.
Japan's three women in the last eight, Harimoto, Hayata and Sato, all lost to Chinese opponents, and with Matsushima, Shunsuke Togami and Hiroto Shinozuka out earlier in the week, no Japanese player is left in either draw.
Calderano and Jang through
Hugo Calderano, the sixth seed, lost the first game 11-5 to Vladimir Sidorenko, who had knocked out the world No 1, Sora Matsushima. The Brazilian won the next two 11-4, 11-4 and the match 4-2, 5-11, 11-4, 11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9.
Calderano, 30, is the highest-ranked man left, at No 7 in the world, and has won 10 of the 12 games he has played this week.
South Korea's Jang Woojin beat Liang Jingkun 11-6, 11-13, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8 and plays Calderano in the semi-finals. Jang, 31, has won in a deciding game twice this week, against Flavien Coton and Lin Yun-Ju.
Results in full
- Wang Yidi (CHN) bt Chen Xingtong (CHN) 11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 12-14, 12-10
- Hugo Calderano (BRA) bt Vladimir Sidorenko 5-11, 11-4, 11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9
- Sun Yingsha (CHN) bt Hina Hayata (JPN) 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-13, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9
- Jang Woojin (KOR) bt Liang Jingkun (CHN) 11-6, 11-13, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8
- Kuai Man (CHN) bt Miwa Harimoto (JPN) 9-11, 11-8, 11-2, 6-11, 11-9, 11-6
- Truls Moregard (SWE) bt Lin Shidong (CHN) 1-11, 11-8, 3-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-7, 11-8
- Chen Yi (CHN) bt Hitomi Sato (JPN) 12-10, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4
- Patrick Franziska (GER) bt Zhou Qihao (CHN) 13-15, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10
Finals day
The semi-finals begin at 10am UK time on Sunday with Chen Yi against Kuai, followed by Wang Yidi against Sun at 10.45am, Calderano against Jang at 11.30am and Moregard against Franziska at 12.15pm. The women's final is at 4.30pm and the men's final at 5.30pm. Read the finals day preview.
