Olympics badminton 2016 results, August 15: China dominates
By John Buhler
China continued its dominance of Olympic badminton in all five medal events during Round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals action on Monday.
Monday, August 15th marked the first full day of Olympic badminton with serious implications on the line. Round of 16 action occurred in both Men’s and Women’s Singles, the men in the morning and the women at night.
The quarterfinals for the Men’s and Women’s Doubles occurred in the morning and Day 5 of Olympic badminton wrapped up its Monday slate with the semifinals in the Mixed Doubles.
Advancing in Men’s Singles were Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen, India’s Srikanth Kidambi, Great Britain’s Rajiv Ouseph, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, and South Korea’s Son Wan Ho in the Round of 16.
Chou will play No. 1 seeded Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei, Kidambi will play No. 3 seeded China’s Lin Dan, Ouseph will play Axelsen, and Son will play China’s No. 2 seed Chen Long in the Men’s Singles Quarterfinals on Wednesday morning.
In the Women’s Singles’ Round of 16, advancing on Monday were South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun, Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsui, Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, and India’s V. Sindhu Pusarla.
Sung will play No. 1 seed from Spain in Carolina Marin, Buranaprasertui will face No. 3 seed in China’s Li Xuerui, Okuhara will meet Yamaguchi, and Pusarla will see No. 2 seed in China’s Wang Yihan in the Women’s Singles Quarterfinals on Tuesday evening.
Advancing in the Men’s Doubles Quarterfinals on Monday were China’s Chai Biao and Hong Wei. They’ll face Malaysia’s Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong on Tuesday morning. On the other side of the bracket in the Men’s Doubles Quarterfinals, China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang will face Great Britain’s Marcus Ellis and Chris Landridge on Tuesday morning in the Men’s Doubles Semifinals.
Advancing in the Women’s Doubles Quarterfinals on Monday were Japan’s Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi. They’ll face South Korea’s Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan in the Women’s Doubles Semifinals on Tuesday morning.
On the other side of the Women’s Doubles bracket, advancing to the semifinals were China’s Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang and they’ll await Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl in the other semifinals match on Tuesday.
Lastly, advancing to the Mixed Doubles Finals after stellar play in the semifinals on Monday evening were Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir after knocking off China’s Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, 2-0.
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The Indonesians will face Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in the gold medal match on Wednesday morning. Chan and Goh defeated China’s Xu Chen and Ma Jin, 2-0. The All-Chinese bronze medal match will be on Tuesday night. China will win bronze in the Mixed Doubles, with Indonesia and Malaysia battling it out for silver on Wednesday.