Eriko Hirose was clearly in the hunt for a good win, after so many months on the bench. The number one women's singles player on the Japanese national team, who was sidelined for a long time with a thigh injury, was facing German opponent Nicole Grether and won the first game easily 21-7.

However, in the second game, Grether fought her way back into the match, and her self-confidence grew.  But even with a lead of 15-9, Grether could not take the second game as Hirose raised the tempo to a pace Grether couldn’t follow.  The Japanese, who had not participated in a major international tournament for a year, showed stability today.  Grether, on the other hand, felt nervous during the match, not only about playing on the TV-court against a Japanese star, but also because of her financial situation, which has been harsh since Germany cut her allowances.

"Now Germany only supports me with clothes," Grether said later.  "A semi-final finish in the Yonex Japan Open might have led to a bigger sponsorship."  The German, who had beaten Japan's young hope Megumi Taruno and Indonesian giant-killer Adriyanti Firdasari on her way to today's quarterfinal, could not find her rhythm from yesterday's match.

"Yesterday was better.  It was tough today," Grether sighed.  "Today the conditions in the gym were not favourable.  Maybe it was the wind.  I couldn't control my shots.  They were sometimes too short and sometimes too long."

Hirose agreed with her opponent of the day: "After we changed sides, I had troubles with the wind.  My clears were too long.  I changed to a racket with a different tension to compensate for this wind."

Grether goes on in her search for sponsors, while Hirose looks forward to playing in the semi-finals tomorrow.

"I still haven't fully recoved from my injury but I'm getting better and better. The fans who have come here today really cheered me up and made me feel confident.  That's why I was able to win today. Wang Yihan has good stamina and is very skillful. I want to do my best. Now I'm looking forward to playing against her."

Hirose was later joined by the duo of Suetsuna and Maeda who also qualified for the semi-finals, by beating Irawati/Jauhari from Indonesia.

New star bows to Vietnam’s prince

Just after the Japanese-German duel, another Japanese hopeful, Kazuteru Kozai (photo), stepped onto the TV court.  He was to play against Nguyen Tien Minh, who has, during the course of this year, already won three international titles: in Thailand, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam.  In the first game, Nguyen took the lead and led by 3 and 4 points throughout the game.  The final score was 21-14.  Kozai fought hard and provided the public with remarkable rallies.

"The first game was very difficult. I had to fight really hard to win each rally," Nguyen said. In the second game, Kozai took the lead. After some net rolls in favour of Kozai, Nguyen felt that something was not right. "It was an unlucky shuttle. I had to smash it hard so it would break."

And it did break.  Nguyen started to feel more relaxed, but when Kozai led with 16-13, the Vietnamese started getting nervous. But Kozai was nervous as well.

"I tried to be too offensive and ended up doing a lot of unforced errors," Kozai reports. "Since I committed the faults by myself, I heard the Japanese audience sighing and I started to feel less confident.  If I could have taken the second game, I think I would have had a chance to win the match."

When Nguyen saw Kozai's too aggressive tactics, he started to cool down and play better and at that point, the match was his. The impression one is left with is that Kozai is a player that we will see more of in the future.

"My result in this tournament was really good. I beat Saeki, who is ranked higher than me. If I can increase my speed on court, I think I might have a chance to beat international top players."

On Saturday, Nguyen (photo), will be playing in his first Super Series semi-final ever, against Bao Chunlai.  But Nguyen prefers not to think about tomorrow: "First I will relax, then prepare for tomorrow. Now I want to see some games," he says as he hurries out to the courts, adding, with a smile, "and if I have time after the tournament I want to go to the electric town Akihabara. I really like electronic stuff."


For complete quarter-final results from the 2009 Yonex Japan Open Super Series, please CLICK HERE


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