MACAU OPEN 2016 SF – Tang/Tse fight to another final

It took 9 match points but Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet got some payback from Tan/Lai and have another shot at a Grand Prix Gold title in Macau.

By Don Hearn.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

It’s been an incredible autumn for the new mixed pairing of Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet (pictured top).  They reached the Thailand Open final in just their third outing together but were beaten narrowly in the final by Malaysia’s Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing.  After winning a Grand Prix title in Taipei and then reaching the semi-final last weekend in their home Superseries, the two lefthanders from Hong Kong have crossed the Zhujiang Estuary and beaten the Malaysians to reach the final of the Macau Open.

But if the Malaysians found it tough in Thailand to beat their challengers 22-20 in that second game, it was nothing compared to the battle that ensued yesterday in the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion.  Tan and Lai clawed back from 17-20 down and forced the game into extra points.  Even then, it was far from over.

The Malaysians actually nosed ahead with their four-point run before the stalemate resumed.  Tang and Tse had to save two more game points after that but it was mainly the Malaysians who were scrambling but they did enough of that to push it almost to the limit.  Just before they could send it to the sudden-death rally, the Hong Kong duo finished it off at 30-28.

In the final, they will meet Zhang Nan and Li Yinhui (pictured above), who prevented an all-Hong Kong final by seeing off former world #6 Lee Chun Hei and Chau Hoi Wah in the last match of the day.  Li Yinhui will be appearing in her fourth final in three weeks.  The 19-year-old does have one title so far in 2016, but she won that one at the Malaysia Masters way back in January.

Zhang Nan may be one of only three players ever to win Olympic gold in two different disciplines but he is still looking for his first doubles double.  The only man to do it in a major event this year is Ko Sung Hyun, who won men’s and mixed doubles titles at the German Open Grand Prix Gold.

Zhang Nan and Lu Kai, in their first tournament together, beat Chinese Taipei Masters winners Fajar Alfian / Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in straight games.  Next, they will face Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei / Lee Yang (pictured left).  The young pair has won two Grand Prix titles this year but they will be contesting their first Grand Prix Gold final in Macau.

16^th in 2016 for Chen Qingchen

Chinese wunderkind Chen Qingchen has already won ten titles this year, including the title with which she and women’s doubles partner Jia Yifan (pictured right) kicked off the year at the $50,000 China International Challenge.  Since then, it’s been all Superseries and Grand Prix Gold for these prodigies and they have picked up one title of each type so far and are looking for a third.

Chen and Jia had an easy win over Malaysia’s Chow/Lee and now will take on Anggia Shitta Awanda / Ni Ketut Mahadewi.  The Indonesians needed just over an hour to send off second seeds Hoo/Woon and book their spot in their first final since last year’s Chinese Taipei Grand Prix.

Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi was again unable to make it past the semi-finals.  This time, she was the only non-Chinese player in the last four and she went down to the relatively unknown Chen Xiaoxin (pictured).  The women’s singles final will feature two 18-year-olds, in fact, as World Junior Champion Chen Yufei is back in a Grand Prix Gold final almost exactly one year after her last attempt.

In the men’s singles, both all-Chinese and all-Chinese Taipei finals were averted.  Chinese Taipei Open winner Chou Tien Chen got the better of New Zealand Open champion Huang Yuxiang in straight games.

The only singles semi-final to go the full distance still didn’t last long.  Dutch Open champion Wang Tzu Wei was dominated by Zhao Junpeng (pictured bottom) in the deciding game.  It was their first meeting since Wang beat Zhao in the semis of the 2013 World Junior Championships and this time it is Zhao who has booked a spot in his first major final.

Finals line-up
XD:  Tang Chun Man / Tse Ying Suet (HKG) [7] vs. Zhang Nan / Li Yinhui (CHN)
WS:  Chen Yufei (CHN) [6] vs. Chen Xiaoxin (CHN)
MS:  Chou Tien Chen (TPE) [1] vs. Zhao Junpeng (CHN)
WD:  Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan (CHN) [1] vs. Anggia Shitta Awanda / Ni Ketut Mahadewi (INA)
MD:  Lee Jhe-Huei / Lee Yang (TPE) [2] vs. Lu Kai / Zhang Nan (CHN) [5]

Click here for complete semi-final results