In the second men's singles semi-final, Christo POPOV from France got off to a flying start. He was 11:2 up after just a short time. His opponent, Shi Feng LI from China, used the break to gather his wits and started to catch up. The Chinese player tied the match at 16:16 and the crowd began to cheer on the European from the Swiss border region. With impressive smash defence and by putting his opponent under pressure again, POPOV won the first set after all. The start of the second set was still evenly poised. At 5:5, however, the Frenchman was able to build up a lead again. He looked more agile and active, took the initiative early on in the rallies and put the Chinese player under pressure. LI fell behind due to his own mistakes and had to let POPOV pull away. The Frenchman eventually won 21:19 and 21:14 and will play the next Chinese player, 8th seed Hong Yang WENG, in the final on Sunday.
