Hong Kong's Jason Gynawan makes it into the men's singles final
Korean ace An Se-young and three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi are poised to play in their sixth final on the BWF Tour tomorrow.
Both top ranked players stormed past their semi-finals opponents with identical scorelines at the Korean Open badminton championships to set-up another mouth-watering final this season.
Se-young, in search of a record equaling 11th title of the season had won all her previous seven meetings with Yamaguchi this season. She had defeated Yamaguchi to clinch the titles at the Denmark Open, Asia Games, World Championships, Indonesian Open and the Singapore Open.
Yamaguchi was also beaten in the semi-finals of the Asian Games team competition as well as the China Masters semi-finals.
She trails Se-young 15-24 in their head-to-head career clashes and has not beaten her rival since their clash for the Korean Open title last year.
In the semi-finals earlier today, Yamaguchi defeated sixth seeded Lin Hsiang Ti of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-12.
The indomitable Se-young stormed past Japan’s fifth seed Hina Akechi by exactly the same score-line 21-16, 21-12.
The men’s singles final will pit Canadian Victor Lai against Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan in the final.
Victor, a two-time world championships bronze medalist is seeking his second title of the season after grabbing the Indonesian Open crown earlier this season.
Gunawan is also in search of a second season title after having won the China Masters earlier this year.
Despite being ranked 16 rungs below world number six Victor, Gunawan will fancy his chances. The pair have played only once at the senior level with Gunawan taking a straight games win at the Hong Kong Open last year.
China are assured of the mixed doubles title with both their pairs – top seeded Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin and the unseeded duo Gao Jiaxuan-Wu Mengying – getting past their opponents.
Jiaxuan-Mengying were the surprise packages as they defeated sevent seeded teammates Zhu Yijun-Li Qian 21-18, 14-21, 21-6 in their semi-finals tie.
Both the men’s and women’s doubles final clashes will see Korean pairs up against Japanese pairs.
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
Men’s singles: Victor Lai (Can) bt Lee Cheuk Yiu (Hkg) 19-21, 21-15, 21-12; Jason Gunawan (Hkg) bt Wang Tzu Wei (Tpe) 21-5, 21-17
Men’s doubles: Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae (Kor) bt Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun (Mas) 21-17, 21-17; Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Jpn) bt Kang Min-hyuk-Lee Jongmin (Kor) 21-14, 21-18
Women’s singles: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt Lin Hsiang Ti (Tpe) 21-16, 21-12; An Se-young (Kor) bt Hina Akechi (Jpn) 21-16, 21-12
Women’s doubles: Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara (Jpn) bt Lauren Lam-Allison Quynh Lee (USA) 21-14, 21-18; Kim Yu-jung-Lee Yu-lim (Kor) bt Chen Fan Shutian-Luo Xumin (Chn) 21-17, 21-11
Mixed doubles: Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin (Chn) bt Akira Koga-Natsu Saito (Jpn) 21-15, 21-13; Gao Jiaxuan-Wu Mengying (Chn) bt Zhu Yijun-Li Qian (Chn) 21-18, 14-21, 21-6
