Saarbrucken: Malaysia’s men’s doubles No. 1 seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik have raced into the SaarLorLux Open final after they were pushed all the way by Huang Kaixiang/Wang Zekang of China before winning the semi-final match 23-21, 13-21, 21-14 in 46 minutes.
In the first set, Chia/Soh found an incredible way to save three crucial game point against Huang/Wang, coming from 17-20 to prevail 23-21.
The Malaysian pair dropped the second set but roared back in the decider with a dominant display to face No. 3 seeds Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England on Sunday.
India’s Subhankar Dey who shocked two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in the second round, overcame a stern test from Ren Pengbo of China 21-18, 11-21, 24-22 to progress to the final of the Super 100 tournament in Saarbrucken, Germany. Dey will meet No. 5 seed Rajiv Ouseph of England next.
In women’s competition, No. 3 seed Cai Yanyan of China had to dig deep to beat teammate and No. 1 seed Gao Fangjie 21-14, 16-21, 21-15 in 52 minutes. Cai will take on compatriot and No. 4 seed Chen Xiaoxin in the final.
Meanwhile, the No. 1 seeds Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria who fought their way into last week’s French Open final, steadied the ship after an unstable start to stave off Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith of England 22-20, 21-8 on Saturday. The Stoeva sisters will meet unseeded Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istarani/Rizki Amelia Pradipta of Indonesia for the women’s doubles title.
The SaarLorLux Open, previously known as BMW Badminton Cup, BMW Open, Bitburger Masters and Bitburger Open, is the tenth Super 100 tournament of the 2018 BWF World Tour this year. It offers total prize money of $75,000.
