Badminton – Thomas & Uber Cup 2024: Indonesia book semi-final spot, while Denmark crash out

The favourite men’s Indonesian team progressed to the semi-finals, while Chinese Taipei caused an upset, sending Denmark home.

These were among the outcomes on Friday (3 May) at the 2024 BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals, the world team badminton championships, in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China.

Anthony Ginting helped Indonesia to a strong start against the Republic of Korea, rallying past Jeon Hyeok Jin 14-21 21-16, 21-16.

Next up for the 14-time champions were Muhammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana, who faced the second-ranked pair in the world Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seungjae. They proved to be too strong and levelled the score for the Republic of Korea, taking a 21-15, 21-12 victory.

World number three Jonatan Christie put Indonesia back in the lead. He came back from one game down to win 17-21, 21-17, 21-10 over Cho Geonyeop.

In the following match, Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto saw off Ki Dong Ju/Kim Won Ho 21-12, 21-13 to send Indonesia into the last four.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s men’s singles Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen suffered an early shock defeat to Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Having lost the first game 19-21, the Dane appeared to have the upper hand, winning the second game 21-14 and being up 16-14 in the decider.

Eventually, world number 14 Chou fought back and prevailed 19-21 in the third game after an hour and eight minutes of play.

Following Axelsen’s defeat, pressure was on the Danish pair, Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.

The world number four pair were favourites facing Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin, but the usually reliable Danes failed to challenge the Chinese Taipei pair and lost 21-14, 21-15.

Anders Antonsen rallied to equalise for Denmark: the four-time European champion saw off Lin Chun-Yi 14-21, 21-10, 21-14 in 74 minutes.

Rasmus Kjær/Frederik Søgaard were forced to win to keep Denmark alive in the competition.

Despite putting up a good battle against the higher-ranked pair Lee Jhe-Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan, it was not enough. With a 23-21, 21-18 victory, Chinese Taipei booked their tickets to the semi-finals, where they will face Indonesia on Saturday (4 May).