YONEX-SUNRISE SS FINALS SF - Danes Dominate Doubles

Saturday, 05 December 2009 14:14

An empty Bandaraya stadium opened the semi-finals day of the 2009 Super Series Masters Finals in Johor Bahru to the disappointment of the players. The mixed and women’s doubles players, however, remained especially generous in feeding the pockets of audience in the morning with moments of brilliance and by sundown, Denmark had scored a hat-trick of doubles victories.

By Jan Lin, reporting live from Johor Bahru. Photos: Eka Nickmathulhuda for Badmintonphoto (live)

India’s world no. 7 mixed doubles pair of Diju V / Jwala Gutta (pictured below) was first to show their class in their match against Poland’s world no. 10 Robert Mateusiak / Nadieza Kostiuczyk. After a nail-biting first game, the charismatic Indian pair raced to a 7-0 lead to then win the game, and with it, the match, 21-19, 21-11.

The irony of the mixed doubles semi-finals is that the respective group winners both suffered elimination in the semi-finals. Diju / Jwala will be playing in the final of a Super Series event for the first time ever and will be hoping to continue the recent trend, which has seen 3 first-time Super Series mixed doubles winners since September. The Indian pair have already eliminated two of these new champions and will fight for the US$42,000 prize money against the third, Denmark’s Joachim Fischer Nielsen / Christinna Pedersen, who beat Anthony Clark / Donna Kellogg 21-13, 21-17.

"We’ve played them a few times and the last time we played them was a tough three-setter," shared England’s Donna Kellogg, who will be retiring from the sport after this event.

"We knew that this could be our final game together so we wanted to go out there and just relaxed and play with no pressure. But unfortunately the Danish were really good today. They served and returned very well, which made it very difficult for us."

Farewell final for Kamilla and Lena

Earlier, Denmark’s world no. 15 women’s doubles pair of Kamilla Rytter Juhl / Lena Frier Kristiansen (pictured top) also outclassed their world no. 7 opponents Cheng Wen Hsing / Chien Yu Chin (pictured below) of Chinese Taipei 21-17, 10-21, 21-16. Rytter Juhl was half of the 2008 mixed doubles champion and made it back-to-back Super Series Finals finals for herself except she will be playing in the women’s doubles final at the 2009 edition.

"I won the mixed doubles last year so it’s really great to be in the final with Lena this year," said Rytter Juhl. "I’m really, really happy. It’s a really good win for us because we’ve lost to them many, many times."

Frier Kristiansen added: "So we knew what was coming. The last couple of times when we met them, we’ve had trouble in the defense because they have really strong smashes and attacks. This time we took our chances in the defense and made a comeback. We were strong today, much better prepared."

"I think we wanted to win more today," shared Rytter Juhl. "We enjoyed it much more than they did. We were smiling and laughing – when we do that it’s because we are having a great time. When we have a great time, we play good. If we play the Malaysians, they are the favourites and we can enjoy!"

"Yeah we would like to meet the Malaysians again in the final to get a revenge for the last time (in the round robin)!" said Frier Kristiansen. "It’s good that we met them on Thursday and found out what they did. We can say we have a lot of confidence now after winning today and we will be ready for the final."

The Danish ladies, who will be playing together for the last time in the final on Sunday, will have hosts and top seeds Chin Eei Hui / Wong Pei Tty in their way to a fairytale finale of their partnership.

"It wasn’t a good game for us today actually," Wong Pei Tty said despite their 21-15, 21-18 victory over Thailand’s Duang Anong Aroonkesorn / Kunchala Voravichitchaikul. "Even though we’ve played the Danes in the group, tomorrow will be a different game." Chin Eei Hui chipped in, "It will be 50-50."

Hot-pinked Boe/Mogensen struck 3 for Denmark

World no. 4 men’s doubles pair of Mathias Boe / Carsten Mogensen (pictured) steamrolled past China’s world no. 9 pair of Xu Chen / Guo Zhendong in straight-game scores of 21-19, 21-17 to complete Denmark’s doubles hat-trick.

"We’ve seen the Chinese pair play really well the last couple of days so we have respect for them even though we won the last 2 or 3 times we played them," said Boe. "We knew what the tactics were and we stuck to it throughout the game. We are very proud of the level we’ve shown."

Boe added: "It’s been a long season, we’ve played very well throughout the season and beaten many top pairs, so coming here we knew that if we played our 100%, we could win and make it to the final. We knew it would be tough but now that we’re in the final, we will go all out in the final."

The 29-year-old Dane, whose boyish looks have had many mistake him for a 23-year-old, threw his racket to the spectator stands after bagging the victory.

"Maybe I’ll give one more racket if we win tomorrow," Boe joked. "I like to try to get the crowd on my side. We show our emotions, showing how much I appreciate being in there on the court."

He continued: "We like to show emotions on court. Winning means the world to us. We spend everyday in practice. We worked very hard. This is what we live for. Sometimes when you win, you don’t really know what you are doing and you just do crazy things."

The Danish pair will take on Korea’s Lee Yong Dae / Jung Jae Sung, who wasted no time in abandoning local representatives Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari / Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif by the wayside.

"It was an easy game for us because the Malaysians were struggling in their defense today," said Lee Yong Dae. "We are getting increasingly confident throughout the course of this tournament and we are confident going into the final. And even though we’ve played and beaten them in the group stage, because we played that game when we’d both already qualified for the semi-finals, that game was meaningless and it will be a totally different game in the final."

For complete results from the semi-finals of the 2009 Yonex-Sunrise BWF World Super Series Master Finals, CLICK HERE

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