Taipei, March 14 (CNA) Taiwanese shuttler Wang Tzu-wei (王子維) tied his career best at the All England Open Badminton Championships by upsetting world No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark on Thursday, advancing to the men’s singles quarterfinals.
Ranked world No. 25, Wang dominated the match with a 21-10, 21-13 victory over Antonsen in just 47 minutes at Utilita Arena Birmingham.
The win marks Wang’s first quarterfinal appearance at the Super 1000 event since 2020 and ends a three-match losing streak against Antonsen, whom he had previously lost to in three of their seven head-to-head encounters.
The victory is particularly significant for the 30-year-old veteran, who has struggled in Super-500 level tournaments or higher since 2022, including two World Championships.
Out of 47 tournaments at this level, Wang has advanced to the quarterfinals or beyond only seven times, including a quarterfinal finish at the 2023 World Championships and a third-place finish at the 2025 Indonesia Masters in late January.
In another impressive showing for Taiwan, Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Japan’s Yushi Tanaka 21-18, 21-8 in just 40 minutes on Thursday.
Wang and Lee are set to face off against rising French star Alex Lanier and Kenta Nishimoto of Japan, respectively, on Friday.
In addition, two Taiwanese men’s doubles pairs — Lee Jhe-huei (李哲輝) and Yang Po-hsuan (楊博軒), and Liu Kuang-heng (劉廣珩) and Yang Po-han (楊博涵) — secured quarterfinal spots and are slated to compete against Indonesian duos Leo Carnando and Bagas Maulana, and Sabar Gutama and Moh Isfahani, respectively, on Friday.
