Vladivostok: Men’s singles top seed Tommy Sugiarto made smooth progress through to the Russian Open final as he brushed aside the challenge of India’s Ajay Jayaram on Saturday, winning 21-17 21-7 in 33 minutes.
The opening game proved to be a close affair, but it was surge in points at different intervals- first at the 5-5 mark- then, at the 15-15 mark for Sugiarto, that proved to be key moments for the Indonesian to win the first set.
Sugiarto completely dominated the second set, by winning points in clumps and eventually sealing the game to advance to the final. Sugiarto will clash with Raul Must who defeated Malaysian Zulfadli Zulkiffli 21-12, 22-20 on Saturday.
In an all-Malaysian men’s doubles semi-final, independent men’s doubles pair Hoon Thien How/Lim Khim Wah got off to a good start, winning the first set 21-15 against second seeds Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong. However, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong showed resilience and bounced back after 13-13 to win the second set with 21-19. Despite Hoon Thien How/Lim Khim Wah’s effort to close in on Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong in the decider, Goh/Tan held off a strong challenge from Hoon/Lim and won the match in 75 minutes.
The pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy went down fighting to top seeds Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov of Russia 21-19, 7-21, 16-21 in other men’s doubles semi-final. Manu and Sumeeth have given some good performances recently and improved their world ranking to No. 20. They won the first game but the Russian combination fought back to turn the tables.
Unseeded Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying were working hard on every point to scraped past third seeds Vitalij Durkin/Nina Vislova 22-20 in the first set of mixed doubles semi-final. Nevertheless, due to a left foot injury sustained by Vitalij Durkin at the end of first set, the Russian pair was forced to retire from the match and allowed Chan/Goh to move into the final. Chan/Goh will face another unseeded pair Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan in the final on Sunday. Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino defeated Akshay Dewalkar/Prajakta Pawar of India 21-10, 21-8 in other mixed doubles semi-final.
Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria will face-off against Johanna Goliszewski/Carla Nelte of Germany in the women’s doubles final.
