Birmingham: No. 6 seeds Malaysian pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying’s astonishing form continued in Birmingham as the Olympic mixed doubles silver medalists advanced to the 2017 All England final for the first time in their career on Saturday.
Chan/Goh halted the momentum of Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino of Japan to storm past the Japanese pair 21-17, 21-15 in the semi-final at the Barclaycard Arena on Saturday, setting up a final with No. 5 seeds Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong of China.
As for the other semi-final between Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong and Chris Adcock/Gabby Adcock of England, it went to the wire before Lu/Huang took the match 19-21, 21-12, 22-20 due to consecutive unforced errors committed by Chris Adcock at the end of third set.
In women’s singles, after overcoming Olympic and World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain in a hard fought quarter-final, No. 5 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand put on a dominant display to beat No. 7 seed Akane Yamaguchi 22-20, 21-16 in the semi-final.
The former World No. 1 will clash with current World No. 1 – Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan in the final.
Top seeded Tai Tzu Ying however was made to work before battle past third-ranked South Korean Sung Ji Hyun 11-21, 21-14, 21-14 in 59 minutes.
Meanwhile, women’s doubles No. 2 seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen will meet No. 4 seeds Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee of Korea for the women’s doubles title on Sunday.
