Muelheim: Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin’s first BWF World Tour tournament of the season saw the World No. 17 men’s pair from Malaysia win the German Open semi-finals 21-12, 21-18 against China’s new pair – He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong on Saturday.
Goh/Izzuddin will take on another Chinese pair – Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi in the final.
In men’s singles, not sure if Malaysia’s World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia was trying to reserve his energy for next week’s All England, he made a lot of unforced errors in the men’s semi-finals, and ultimately went down to Thailand’s World No. 20 Kunlavut Vitidsarn 13-21, 12-21.
“When playing against Lee Zii Jia, first, I need to play defense. And counter attack if I have the chance,” said Vitidsarn.
“I started attacking when I noticed he couldn’t control the shuttle well,” added Vitidsarn.
Another men’s semi-final saw Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Viktor Axelsen squander a handsome 16-9, 19-15 lead in the decider, defeated by World No. 12 Lakshya Sen of India 13-21, 21-12. 20-22 in a sensational battle.
“I came off to a pretty bad start, didn’t control the shuttle really well, and didn’t move well,” said Axelsen after the match.
“Lakshya played a really good game,” added Axelsen.
“I probably should have won the third game, to be honest. But I started to get a little bit too tense, and made bad decisions,” explained Axelsen.
As for Sen, he was upbeat after the victory against the World No. 1 player.
“I just tried to win one point at a time. I was trailing by a lot in the third game. I just stick to the game plan, be patient, at the end it worked out for me,” said Sen.
Sen will meet Vitidsarn in the final on Sunday.
The Tokyo women’s singles gold medalist Chen Yufei will set up an all-Chinese final against compatriot He Bingjiao after both won their respective semi-final matches on Saturday.
Thailand’s World No. 1 mixed pair – Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai will meet Ou Xuan Yi/Huang Ya Qiong of China on Sunday while World No. 1 Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan will fight World No. 9 Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria for the women’s doubles title.
