Gopichand in Indonesian Open semis

The second seeded Indian ace had to work hard to defeat the young Indonesian.

Sony, runner-up of the 2000 World Junior championships and the 2001 Asian Junior championships, led the first two sets 7-3, 7-0 and extended his lead to 4-1 in the third set.

But the experienced Indian came back to win the remaining three sets. The match itself took 68 minutes.

Gopichand will face the Indonesian Marleve Mainaky in the semi-final.

Mainaky defeated the fifth seed Agus Hariyanto of Hong Kong 7-5, 7-3, 7-4 to move into the semi-final.

Top seed Lee Hyun Il of Korea also entered the semi-finals after a 7-3, 1-7, 7-4, 7-3 victory over Malaysian James Chua in 40 minutes.

Lee will meet another Malaysian eight seed, Lee Tsuen Seng, who defeated the 16th seed Colin Haughton of England 7-3, 7-8, 2-7, 7-2, 7-2 in the quarter-final.

In the women's singles, top seeded Wang Chen of Hong Kong will face the unseeded Indonesian, Cindana Hartono Kusuma in the semi-final, while the other semi-final will be an all Indonesian affair with the second seed Lidya Djaelawijaya facing Ellen Angelina.

Earlier reports:
Gopichand in quarters: Indonesian Open
Re-draw for Indonesian Open badminton
Gopichand seeded No. 2 for Indonesian Open