Ouseph topples fourth seed to make European semis

Feltham’s Rajiv Ouseph came from behind to edge out fourth seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the European Badminton Championships.

With just one place separating them in the world rankings – Ouseph is at 16th, Vittinghus 15th – this was always likely to be a close match.

And it lived up to its billing, with the west Londoner emerging triumphant in just under an hour, 19-21 21-12 21-19.

Fifth seed Ouseph took just 21 minutes to dispatch Dmytro Zavadsky on Wednesday before a 23-21 21-15 win over world number 84 Lucas Corvee on Thursday.

But he dropped the first game against Vittinghus, who pulled away at 16-16 and held off a brief comeback from Ouseph to clinch it.

However, the 29-year-old Englishman was never behind in game two, at one point leading 17-8, as he took the match to a decider.

The lead changed hands on several occasions with Dane Vittinghus looking well placed at 19-17 – but Ouseph picked off four points in a row, including match point, to seal a semi-final against top seed, and current world number five, Jan O. Jorgensen.

It is the third time Ouseph has reached the last four of the European Championships, having reached the final the last it was held, in 2014.