Taiwan’s Chen Hong-ling and Lin Yu-lang defeated Indonesian third-seeds Alvent Yulianyo Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan in the semi-finals of the men’s doubles at the Yonex Open badminton tournament in Taipei yesterday.
Chen and Lin led the first set until a series of errors allowed their opponents to catch up and bring the set to deuce. The Taiwanese pair finally lost the set 20-22.
However, the local duo made a comeback to claim the second set 21-17.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER
Yulianyo and Hendra led for a while during the decisive third set but the Taiwanese pair’s strong defense helped them claim the set and the match, 20-22, 21-17, 21-17.
Chen said the key to winning the third set was the local pair’s successful defense against repeated smashes by the Indonesians.
Although Lin was not satisfied with his performance, which he described as a bit indecisive, he was able to battle until the end helped by the cheers of the crowd.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Cheng Shao-chieh defeated compatriot Hsu Ya-ching 21-17, 21-15 yesterday in the semi-finals of the women’s singles. Today Cheng will strive to claim Taiwan’s first women’s singles’ championship title at the tournament.
Hsu has seen Cheng as her role model and yesterday was the first time the two have played each other in a competition. During the first set, Cheng led 14-10 before Hsu caught up to level the score. Cheng then claimed the next four points to take the set.
At the beginning of the second set Cheng took a 6-0 lead but Hsu pulled things back to leave the score 14-13 in her favor. But the experienced Cheng controlled things well to take the set 21-15 and claim the match.
Cheng said that she won yesterday’s game only because she was more experienced than Hsu. She suggested that Hsu vary her shots and said she believed her opponent has a promising future.
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