Danai Udomchoke of Thailand will play Jimmy Wang of Chinese Taipei in the first semi-final of the McDonald’s Burnie International. The match will be played on February 3.
Udomchoke, seeded sixth in the tournament, upset the second-seeded Lu-yen Hsun in the quarter-final played on Thursday. While it was a straight set win, Udomchoke needed tie-breakers in both the sets to come through to the last-four stage. He won 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5).
Earlier, Udomchoke had overcome Sebastian Rieschick in a tough three-setter in the second round after having brushed Denys Molchanov aside in the opener.
Wang entered the tournament as an unseeded player but has been fortunate to have not faced any seeded player so far. He did not break into any sweat in his 6-3, 6-0 win over Benjamin Mitchell in the quarter-finals after having crushed Michael Look 6-1, 6-2 in the second round.
It was only in the first round earlier that Farrukh Dustov managed to take a set off him but Wang came back well to win the match 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.
Udomchoke and Wang have played each other thrice and all the three matches were played in the Challengers. While Udomchoke won on the first two occasions in 2003, it was Wang who defeated his Thai opponent last year at Seoul.
The Danai Udomchoke v Jimmy Wang McDonald’s Burnie International 2012 semi-final will be played on February 3. It will begin at 1 pm local time.
