Two U.S. Pairs Make it to Quarter Finals: 2026 Japan Open
- July 17, 2026
- 11:13 am
Major strides were made by US players in this year’s Japan Open, with two pairs from Team USA making it to the quarter-finals!
In Men’s Doubles Presley Smith/Hermes Zhi Yi Chen readily defeated the Danish pair Daniel Lundgaard/Mads Vestergaard in a two game match: 21-15, 21-12, a match that sent them to their first ever quarter-finals at a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 event.
Also charging their way to their first quarter finals at a Super 750 event, Lauren Lam/Allision Lee managed to defeat the Korean pair Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee, who are currently sitting at the No. 3 spot in the world rankings.
Lam/Lee came up from one game down to win the match. Lam attests, “we were down 9-1, and I just told Allison to just fight, just one point at a time. And then slowly, point after point we kept getting our momentum. Honestly, it was pretty nerve-racking, it was really tough.”
The USA was represented by seven players across four events:
Women’s Singles:
Beiwen Zhang
Men’s Doubles:
Presley Smith/Hermes Zhi Yi Chen
Women’s Doubles:
Lauren Lam/Allision Lee
Francesca Corbett/Jennie Gai
Mixed Doubles:
Presley Smith/Jennie Gai
Hermes Zhi Yi Chen/Francesca Corbett
Learn more about team USA’s triumphs in this article from BWF.
Congratulations to our players!
Photo Credit: Badminton Photo, Jnanesh Salian