ALL ENGLAND 2013 SF – All-China women’s doubles final

Japanese pair Maeda/Suetsuna were unable to prevent an all-China final in the women’s doubles at the Yonex All England, as first seeds Wang Xiaoli / Yu Yang progressed to face qualifiers Cheng Shu / Zhao Yunlei, albeit with one half of the women’s doubles Olympic champion pair in Zhao Yunlei.

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

Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang (pictured left) will have mixed feelings of playing in England, after they were disqualified from the 2012 London Olympics for match-throwing, but also fond memories of Birmingham with a victory here at the Yonex All England in 2011.

Wang/Yu looked at ease on court against Japanese pair Miyuki Maeda / Satoko Suetsuna, who had spent almost an extra match’s worth of time on court during this tournament (137 vs 89 minutes).

Maeda/Suetsuna were always second best to the Chinese, who defended well and put their opponents on the back foot, sealing a swift victory 21-11 21-16.

Wang/Yu will face compatriots Cheng Shu and Olympic champion Zhao Yunlei (pictured right) who came through qualifying to reach the All England final for the third time as a pair, beating the Chinese fifth seeds Ma Jin and Tang Jinhua in the semi-finals in another quick match. This compounds a bad year for Ma Jin at the Yonex All England, as she also exited her preferred discipline the mixed doubles yesterday at the quarter-final stage.

The first game was hotly contested, with Zhao getting back into the groove with her former partner and the two just coming out on top to take the opener 21-18.

The true quality of Cheng / Zhao, disguised by the re-united partnership’s lower ranking, showed through in the second game, however, as they ran away with the match, taking the second with a more decisive 21-7.

The full results for the day can be found here.

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