After struggling to close out his previous three matches the top seeded Taufik Hidayat had an easier run today in his quarter-final match against Denmark’s Christian Lind Thomsen.  The young Dane has had a good run to this point, but it was not enough as Hidayat closed out the match 21-13, 21-14.  In spite of a relatively smoother scoreline this time the match still took 42 minutes to complete which is a testament to the Danes strong performance here this week.  Tomorrow Hidayat faces Dieter Domke who ousted Korea’s Lee Dong Keun 21-14, 12-21, 21-16.  The other side of the draw had France’s two remaining hopefuls facing off against one another, however the higher ranked Brice Leverdez triumphed over his teammate Simon Manoury in two straight games 21-12, 22-20.  Leverdez now plays Denmark’s Rune Ulsing who had a marathon match against Japan’s Saeki Hiroyuki 17-21, 22-20, 21-19. 

It was a good run for Canada’s Anna Rice in front of her hometown crowd, but it wasn’t to be as her fantastic run was ended by Korea’s Kim Moon Hi 9-21, 21-15, 21-10.  Kim now plays Zhu Lin who has yet to drop a game thus far.  The bottom half of the draw will now be an all European affair as Judith Meulendijks of the Netherlands is scheduled to play against Juliane Schenk. 

Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan are the lone pairing left in the men’s doubles not representing an Asian country.  The Americans have yet to see a serious challenge so far, but tomorrow Singapore’s Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Chayut Triyachart will aim to change that after defeating Germany’s Ingo Kindervater and Johannes Schoettler 23-21, 21-13.  Chinese Taipei’s second seeded Fang Chieh Min and Lee Sheng Mu still remain and will face Kim Ki Jung and Shin Baek Cheol in their semi-final match.