ALL ENGLAND 2013 Finals – China take men’s doubles title without Cai/Fu

A strong attack from Chinese pair Liu / Qiu sealed them a victory at the Yonex All England as they dominated the flat mid-court play, not giving a chance to a nervous Endo / Hayakawa.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent, live from Birmingham.  Photos: Yohan Nonotte for Badmintonphoto (live).

The first match of finals day to be contested between two different nations, saw Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa (pictured below) of Japan take on Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan (pictured left) of China in the men’s doubles.

A nervous Endo / Hayakawa made too many errors in the first game of their match against Chinese opponents Liu / Qiu. A strong Chinese defence drew lifts from the Japanese pair, which were eagerly punished with big smashes, as the mid game interval saw the Chinese leading 11-6.

A match of higher intensity than the women’s doubles before, a much greater crowd involvement as they enjoyed the attacking onslaught from China, continuing as the Japanese made unforced error after error to concede the first game to the tame score of 21-11.

Not able to counter the confident Chinese attack, the Japanese struggled to get into the second game as they were dominated in the flat play to control the net. When the Japanese did get the attack, a strong Chinese defence meant that had to work very hard to draw even one error.

These points, few and far between, were not enough to stop the Chinese against taking a lead into the mid game, 11-7.

The Japanese pair had no answer to the Liu / Qiu’s mid court domination and not able to get the attack, their defence did not stand up to the test as they lost the deciding end 21-9.

A disappointed Japanese pair spoke after the match to say: “This is the first time we have played in a final and them [Liu / Qiu] as a pair. We enjoyed the final experience but it is very disappointing for us to lose. Our only regret was that we couldn’t play the game we wanted because they were so dominant.”

Liu / Qiu, obviously ecstatic to have won, said: “We are very happy to win this game and we enjoyed this game a lot. The Japanese team played very well, we just played every shot well. The support that we had from the fans encouraged us to win the way that we did.”

The full results for the day can be found here.

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