Top seeds Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing will start as favourites when they take on former national junior counterparts Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei in the last four at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi.

This will be the first head-on clash in a competitive tournament between world No 10 Kian Meng-Pei Jing and world No 40 Tang Jie-Yen Wei.

Kian Meng-Pei Jing defeated Russians Konstantin Abramov-Anastasiia Akchurina 21-10, 21-14 in today’s quarterfinals, while third seeds Tang Jie-Yen Wei defeated India’s Venkat Prasad-Juhi Dewangan 21-10, 21-13.

Kian Meng quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in February after Pei Jing and four other senior players were dropped from the national team.

Tang Jie, 24, was delighted to have reached his first semifinals of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 500 event (third-tier).

“We had a good rest yesterday after getting a walkover, so we were well-prepared for today’s match,” he said.

“We are very happy to make our first semis in the 500 event. Kian Meng-Pei Jing are our seniors and, having trained with them for many years, we know each other’s weaknesses. So, we need to figure out our best game plan for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, new mixed doubles partnership of Chan Peng Soon, the Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist, and Valeree Siow lost 21-14, 21-13 against Russia’s second seeds Rodion Alimov-Alina Davletova in the quarterfinals.

“Our opponents were of very high quality. Overall, our partnership is good, though we need to work on our combination more if we want to challenge the top pairs,” Peng Soon said.