Denmark’s Peter Gade scored a surprise victory in the men’s singles semi-finals of the Yonex-Sunrise BWF World Super Series Masters Finals yesterday, beating Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21-10, 21-10.
“Winning 10 and 10 is a very good result against a player like Sony. I did not expect to win with such a score. I controlled the net and the wind,” Gade said.
“I also played a fast game. Sony has very good all-round play and likes to move around the court. If he gets going it is going to be tough long and tiring rallies. Fortunately he didn’t,” he said.
Gade’s opponent in the final will be Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia or Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat, who played their fixture later yesterday.
The crowd started off behind Sony, but found the Indonesian making too many mistakes and got behind the Dane, applauding his victory in 30 minutes.
Meanwhile in the men’s doubles, former All-England champions Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong marched into today’s final by knocking out Malaysian teammates Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari 22-20, 21-14 in 31 minutes.
The season-ending Super Series Masters Finals began on Thursday in Kota Kinabalu in the eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island. It offers a total purse of US$500,000, making it the world’s most lucrative badminton tournament. Koo and Tan are in line to pocket the US$42,000 prize money that comes with the title.
They will meet either top seeds Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, whom they demolished in an earlier Group B fixture, or fourth-seeded South Korean pair Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung.
“If we win the Super Series title it will be our first big title this year. Frankly, it is more than we expected reaching this far in the Super Series,” Koo said.
India’s Saina Nehwal, 18, saw her run in the championship come to an end after Hong Kong’s Wang Chen beat her 15-21, 21-14, 21-16 in the semi-finals in 42 minutes.
“Saina played a very fast game in the first set. I could not catch up with her speed. She is a very strong player, she is very fast and very young,” Wang said.
“But I was able to come back. I now play a more relaxed game and there is no pressure. That’s why I can still play well,” she said.
In the all Indonesian women’s doubles semi-finals, Vita Marissa and Liliyana Natsir beat Jo Novita and Greysia Polii 21-19, 21-17.
In the mixed doubles semi-finals, Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl beat Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam 21-17, 22-20.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
RSS