Pinoy smashers make q’finals in Yonex US Open Badminton

THE Philippines’ Toby Gadi and Kennevic Asuncion emerged victorious, 21-16, 21-19, over Taiwanese Yu Hsien Lin and Chia Hsin Wan to barge into the quarterfinal round of the Yonex US Open Badminton men’s doubles.

Gadi, the five-time Open champion of the Philippine Badminton Ranking System circuit, continued to complement well with Asuncion as they rolled to their second straight victory to remain in the hunt in the Badminton World Federation Grand Prix Gold B tournament.

The Philippine pair,  whose campaign is backed by Ateneo and the Golden Shuttle Foundation, earlier needed an extra set before subduing the US tandem of Phillip Chew and Sattawat Pongnairat, 21-11, 20-22, 21-8. They, however, will have their hands full as they go for a semifinal berth against the fourth-seeded tandem of Yoshiteru Hirobe and Kenta Kazuno of Japan.

Hirobe and Kazuno trounced Sirachai Phapuchara and Siraroj Phapuchara, 21-12, 21-12, then trampled Canada’s Andrew D’Souza and Sergiy Shatenko, 21-6, 21-8. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio