Taipei: Malaysia’s young mixed doubles pair of Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing was in awesome form as they foiled a stirring fight back from Indonesia’s scratch pair Riky Widianto/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja by defeating the Indonesia pair 21-17, 22-20 on Saturday to reach the Chinese Taipei Open final.
The World No. 44 Tan/Lai will face China’s World No. 38 Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen who needed only 26 minutes to defeat Hafiz Faisal/Shella Devi Aulia of Indonesia 21-14, 21-13 in another mixed doubles semi-final.
“I was trying to finishing off the match fast but ended up making some unforced errors when we were leading at 20-17 in the second set. That affected my partner’s performance too. Fortunately, we were able to regroup to clinch the match,” said Lai Pei Jing.
To avoid putting too much pressure on themselves, Lai said they will need to focus more on their next match instead of thinking about winning the championship.
Malaysia’s Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin however could not advance past Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan, when he went down to the Taiwanese in straight sets in the men’s singles semi-final, losing 16-21 and 10-21 on Saturday.
Chou will play China’s Qiao Bin in the final.
In women’s competition, China’s Wang Shixian will meet Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan in the final.
Chinese Taipei Open Semi-finals:
Men’s singles: Chou Tien-chen (TPE) bt Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS) 21-16, 21-10; Qiao Bin (CHN) bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA) 21-11, 21-16.
Women’s singles: Wang Shixian (CHN) bt He Bingjiao (CHN) 21-18, 17-21, 21-18; Tai Tzu-Ying (TPE) bt Nichaon Jindapol (THA) 21-15, 21-14.
Men’s doubles: Li Junhui-Liu Yuchen (CHN) bt Lee Sheng-mu-Tsai Chia-Hsin (TPE) 21-15, 21-19; Chen Hung-ling-Wang Chi-Lin (TPE) bt Huang Kaixiang-Zheng Siwei (CHN) 21-15, 21-23, 21-16.
Women’s doubles: Huang Dongping-Zhong Qianxin (CHN) bt Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan (CHN) 21-16, 21-18; Luo Ying-Luo Yu (CHN) bt Chaladchalam Chayanit-Phataimas Muenwong (THA) 22-20, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (MAS) bt Riky Widianto-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (INA) 21-17, 22-20; Zheng Siwei-Chen Qingchen (CHN) bt Hafiz Faisal-Shella Devi Aulia (INA) 21-14, 21-13.
