Japan are through to the semi-finals of the Uber Cup in Horsens, Denmark for the ninth consecutive time. The east Asian side staved off a strong challenge from Thailand to emerge 3-1 victors and set-up a last four clash against top seeds China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China had strolled past Malaysia 3-0 in their semi-final tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not an easy match-up for Japan against Thailand, as they had to work hard for each point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening singles match brought Japan\u2019s Akane Yamaguchi up against former world champion Ratchanok Intanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the duo have played each other 25 times prior to today\u2019s clash, it was only their first in almost three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yamaguchi, the world number three, extended her winning record against Ratchanok to 15-11 with 47-minute 22-20, 21-15 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her win over the seventh ranked Ratchanok gave the Japanese the start they needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first doubles was the easiest point earned by the Japanese. Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto had overcame first game resistance to getting past the scratch pair of Benyapa Aimsaard-Supissara Paewsampran 22-20, 21-8 in 47-minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pornpawee Chochuwong put the Thais back in contention when she defeated Tomoka Miyzaki 15-21, 21-16, 21-19 after a grueling 84-minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world number eighth had defeated the ninth ranked Tomoko in both the previous meetings but barely managed to win this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second double match between Arisa Igarashi-Kie Nakanishi and Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat saw the Japanese world number seven dropping the first game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was not be a Thai comeback. Igarashi-Nakanishi regrouped and played with more purpose to take the match 19-21, 21-8, 21-14 and lead Japan to the semi-finals once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan has won the Uber Cup six- times and will be looking to upstage China in the semi-finals for their first since defeating Thailand for the coveted Cup in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n UBER CUP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan beat Thailand 3-1 <\/strong>(Akane Yamaguchi bt Ratchanok Intanon 22-20, 21-15; Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto bt Benyapa Aimsaard-Supissara Paewsampran 22-20, 21-8; Tomoka Miyzaki lost Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-15, 16-21, 19-21; Arisa Igarashi-Kie Nakanishi bt Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat 19-21, 21-8, 21-14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japan are through to the semi-finals of the Uber Cup in Horsens, Denmark for the ninth consecutive time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-12464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-badminton"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi.jpg",1065,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi-768x433.jpg",640,361,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi-1024x577.jpg",640,361,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi.jpg",1065,600,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi.jpg",1065,600,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arisa-Igarashi-Kie-Nakanishi.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12468,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12464\/revisions\/12468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}