Once Akane Yamaguchi had staged a surreal comeback, there was no looking back for Japan. The home fans’ reigning deity, nearly down and out against Kim Ga Eun, broke her opponent’s heart as she completed her 11^th straight victory over the Korean.

What followed was a dream day for Japan, with Yushi Tanaka upstaging No.2 seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn to enter his maiden Super 750 semifinal, Koki Watanabe taking down third seed Anders Antonsen, and Kodai Naraoka prevailing in a 98-minute marathon against Alwi Farhan.

There were the victories in doubles as well, with Akira Koga/Natsu Saito, Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi and Yuki Fukushima/Mayu Matsumoto taking their places in the semifinals. Japan had won all seven of their matches today.

Kim, who had very nearly pulled off the heist, tried to smile bravely after the bruising encounter, but the pain showed, for she’d had leads of 11-3 and 15-9 before Yamaguchi nicked it at 22-20 in the third.

Tanaka made his first Super 750 semifinal with a performance of such speed and attacking precision that it caught Kunlavut Vitidsarn off-guard. The second seed was all praise for his opponent at the end of his 20-22 21-16 21-18 defeat.

“My opponent is very fast and was better than me at everything. Tanaka kept the pressure high all the time. My control wasn’t great today.

“Today he kept up high pressure, I couldn’t lift, and I couldn’t spin. He’s fast and jumps high and he catches the shuttle high at the net.

“I came to learn on the court. I’m just coming back from my back injury, I’ll try again. I give credit to Yushi – today he was better than me. He covered the court better than me.”

Tanaka oozed confidence.

“I told myself beating him wasn’t beyond me, because I think I can beat anyone. This is my first time in a semifinal at the Japan Open, I’m very happy about it. I will try to treat the audience to some good badminton!

“I tried to find something to push myself, but he is very skilful so I told myself to wait for my chances. I still have a lot to improve on; I made a few mistakes in a row, so that’s something I should work on.”

→Results (Quarterfinals)