FRENCH OPEN 2014 QF – Europeans still standing in doubles

Chris and Gabrielle Adcock won their European battle against the ever improving Selena Piek and Jacco Arrends, saving two match points, to reach their second straight appearance in a French Open Superseries semi-final.  Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Boe achieved a second win in two weeks over Chai Biao and Hong Wei, to draw level in their head-to-head record vs. the Chinese pair.

By Tarek Hafi, Badzine Correspondent, live from Paris.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

The top English pair Chris and Gabrielle Adcock (pictured) had to hold their nerves to come back level against Selena Piek and Jacco Arrends of the Netherlands.  The couple saved two match points in order to reach their second semi-final in the Pierre de Coubertin hall.

It didn’t start the way they wanted as the twenty-three year-old pair Selena Piek and Jacco Arrends (pictured below) were first to take the initiative with Selena Piek being very efficient at the net.

With the first game going to the Dutch side after a kill at the net from Piek, the world number five had no choice but to step up their game, getting very much into the attack to conclude the second game with a great return from Chris Adcock, adding some more suspense to the encounter.

The rubber was, as expected, a delight for the crowd.  Both pairs remained very close in the score with the Dutch taking a slight advantage in the end, earning two match points.  Still, it wasn’t sufficient to gain their first Superseries semi-final ticket as they stumbled in front of the more experienced English pair.

“I was saying to Chris how lucky we were.  The Dutch pair played really well,” commented Gabrielle Adcock.  “It was a scrappy game.  We knew they would want to grab this chance to get into their first Superseries semi-final.  It was a tense match but at the end when the crowd was supporting us it definitely helped! We just love playing here in France every year.”

The number one English pair are now set to meet Denmark’s Mads Pieler Kolding and Kamilla Rytter Juhl for a place in the final.

Twice in two weeks, Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Boe (pictured) have finally found the recipe to beat nemeses Chai Biao and Hong Wei.  This time, it was a long match that finished after midnight.

The Danish pair luckily had the crowd support behind them as they constantly prevented the Chinese from coming back into the game.  Chai Biao and Hong Wei came close to catching up in the rubber until the Danes started to run towards victory.

“We played them last week and of course knew they were very strong but could also make several easy mistakes so if we pressured them enough, we could succeed in the big parts of the game and here we are through the semis!” said Mathias Boe, asking fans to hurry up since it was getting close to 1AM and both players were trying to rush to get out of the Stadium Coubertin.

They needed as much rest as possible for their semi-final on Saturday, where they will play Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Andrei Adistia, the surprising winners over the fourth seeds Markis Kido and Gideon Markus Fernaldi.

Click here for complete quarter-final results