Rio Olympic Games gold medalists Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo defeated China's world No. 1 pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan on Friday to set up an all-Japanese women's doubles semifinal at the All England Open Badminton Championships.
The Olympic champions, currently No. 7 in the world, will meet third-ranked pair Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the penultimate stage of the tournament, which may have effectively become the last qualifying event for this summer's Tokyo Games.
The Badminton World Federation announced Saturday the suspension of all sanctioned tournaments from Monday to April 12 in response to the global coronavirus pandemic.