Taiwanese shuttler Lin Hsiang-ti yesterday lost the women’s singles final at the Macau Open after a hard-won path to her first showdown against China’s Gao Fangjie, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Pei-shan and Hung En-tzu also lost their women’s doubles final.
World No. 49 Lin, one of Taiwan’s top six female players, narrowly beat the Gao 23-21 in the first game, taking an early lead that she barely held on to the end on Court 1 at the Macao East Asian Games Dome.
However, the second two games were significantly more lopsided, with world No. 32 Gao dominating Lin 21-9, 21-11 to take the match in 1 hour, 21 minutes.
Photo: grab from BWF Twitter
Lin on Saturday advanced to the final of the Super 300 event after upsetting Tomoka Miyazaki in 63 minutes for her first win against the Japanese player in their second encounter.
Miyazaki had finished second in this month’s Super 1000 Victor China Open and reached the semi-finals of the Super 500 Hong Kong Open the week before, and appeared poised to continue her hot streak when she won the first game against Lin 21-17.
However, Lin maintained a steady lead throughout the second game and held off a comeback attempt in the third game, when the Japanese narrowed a 17-12 deficit to 17-16, to gain a place in the women’s singles finals.
Gao on Saturday toppled Taiwan’s Chiu Pin-chian in their semi-final of the tournament, which was being held for the first time since 2019.
World No. 38 Chiu lost to Gao 21-14, 13-21, 21-14, her second loss to the Chinese shuttler since their only previous match in 2022.
Chiu on Friday had defeated Japan’s Riko Gunji 21-18, 21-12 in 43 minutes for her second win against the Japanese player in their third encounter.
“She has gained more confidence over the past few international tournaments and is finding her tempo. I believe she will keep getting better,” Chiu’s coach, Chen Shih-ying, said.
At 25, Chiu is the youngest among Taiwan’s six highest ranked female shuttlers.
Chiu’s best performance at a Super 300 level tournament — a lower level event used by second-tier players to gain ranking points — this year was at the Taipei Open, where she lost in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Hsieh and Hung yesterday lost 23-25, 21-18, 20-22 to China’s Lin Wenmei and Zhang Shuxian in the women’s doubles final.
The world No. 54 Taiwanese advanced to the final after toppling the third-seeded Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela of India 21-17, 16-21, 21-10.
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