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.
The Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 36 points from Tyrese Maxey and a triple-double from Joel Embiid, on Thursday beat the Houston Rockets 128-122 in an NBA overtime thriller. Cameroonian big man Embiid scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out 10 assists, posting the ninth triple-double of his career to help the Sixers end the Rockets’ three-game winning streak. Rockets star Kevin Durant scored 36 points and Amen Thompson added 17, but Thompson was scoreless in the fourth quarter. Even so, the Rockets led by nine midway through the final frame, Maxey tying it at 115-115 with 40.1 seconds left. Durant missed a
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
Taiwanese FORTUNES: Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles, but Ray Ho was ousted in the men’s doubles Carlos Alcaraz yesterday stepped up his quest to win a maiden Australian Open as he overwhelmed showman Corentin Moutet to reach the last 16, while Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles. Three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev battled through on day six at a warm and sunny Melbourne Park, as did Coco Gauff. Top seed Alcaraz was never in danger against French 32nd seed Moutet, easing through 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena in 2 hours, 5 minutes. It was the Spaniard’s 100th Grand Slam match and he boasts a remarkable 87-13 win-loss record,
LICENSE TO THRILL: Fans of Learner Tien, the youngest man to reach the quarter-finals in 11 years, wore ‘L Plates,’ signs for learning drivers, in support of the 20-year-old Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Japanese partner Eri Hozumi yesterday dominated eighth seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and the Netherlands’ Demi Schuurs to advance to the Australian Open quarter-finals, the furthest the Taiwanese has made it since her first appearance in Melbourne in 2020. Wu and Hozumi overpowered world No. 21 Perez and world No. 20 Schuurs 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 11 minutes at 1573 Arena in much cooled temperatures since Saturday’s blazing 40°C disrupted play. World No. 34 Wu has now made it further in the Australian Open since she was knocked out in the third round in 2024. The Taiwanese-Japanese duo
RSS