ALL ENGLAND 2015 SF – Indonesians to go for fourth

Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir will return on finals day at the 2015 Yonex All England after beating Danes Fischer Nielsen and Pedersen, who have been a bogey pair for them previously. They join as one of only two defending champions left, after Wang and Yu beat compatriots in the fully Chinese women’s doubles semi-final affair.

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

Saina Nehwal’s march to the final of the 2015 Yonex All England Superseries Premier continued as she began precedings on semi-finals day battling it out against Sun Yu, the last remaining Chinese women’s singles player.

This tournament has seen an impressive set of performances from the tall Chinese player, who led in both games of her semi-final as well but lost her way after the mid-game breaks.

“This has definitely been a confidence boost to get these wins, I was glad to get to the semi finals, but I’m improving and next year I want the finals,” said Sun Yu.

“When I was leading, I played more loose and made more mistakes. Saina changed her tactics and I couldn’t adjust.”

It was a physical match for Saina Nehwal (pictured top), who said “Both Chinese players were tough games, I played yesterday very well, and today but I was a bit sluggish.”

“You can’t do much against [Sun Yu] as she’s too tall, she can catch you out at any step, and it only takes her one stretch to reach what takes us three or four steps.”

Saina talked of an interesting way to cope with the pressure at this prestigious tournament.

“Indians are very emotional and attach a lot to their sports.  They expect a lot from you and it is difficult to perform all the time.  They expect Saina should win this, she should win that. I just try to block it out.  I like to watch Shahrukh Khan films to take my mind off it. And when I play I just pretend it’s not the All England.”

She will play World Champion Carolina Marin (pictured above) from Spain in the final, and has beaten her before in Marin’s only other Superseries final. Marin made the final as she out-muscled another of women’s singles rising young stars, Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying.

“I feel really happy to play in the final. I wanted to keep the shuttle and play longer rallies and tire her out. I don’t have any pressure for tomorrow, I just want to give my best on court.”

Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir (pictured above) are serial performers at the Yonex All England, as they reached yet another final in the mixed doubles.

Lilyana said, “I feel very happy to beat them today, it was 2-5 [head to head] going into today so this was a tough match.”

She continued, “Of course it’s very important to defend our title, it’s a big tournament and will be our fourth if we win.”

They will be joined as defending champions by Chinese women’s pair Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang (pictured right), who easily dispatched the first seeds and reigning World Champions Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei.

The full results for the day can be found here.