India Open: Lee stuns Naraoka in men’s singles semifinals, Tai Tzu enters women’s title round

PTI

New Delhi, January 20

Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu recorded a stunning three-game win over World Championships silver medallist Kodai Naraoka of Japan to qualify for his first super 750 men’s singles final at the India Open here on Saturday.

The World No. 18 Lee, who had reached the finals at Hylo Open super 300 and Thailand Open super 500 last year, eked out a 21-13 15-21 21-19 victory over the second seed Naraoka in the first semi-final here.

In women’s singles, China’s Chen Yu Fei overcame compatriot Wang Zhi Yi in straight games to set up a women’s singles final date with Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in what would be a rematch of the Tokyo Olympics summit clash.

Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Chen beat Wang 21-13 21-18 in the semi-finals, while Tai Tzu Ying progressed to her second successive women’s singles final of the season with a 21-13 21-18 win over world No. 20 Yeo Jia Min in the first women’s singles semifinal.

In a tense men’s singles semifinal that went down the wire, Lee displayed his grit to hang in there as he engaged in long rallies with Naroka, who saved four match points only to leave empty handed in the end after losing a video referral.

“In the end, I was nervous the way he came back. I guess, I am the lucky one at the last point. I was excited in the end as this is my first 750 final,” said Lee, who sat on his hunches while waiting for the referrel as the video show the shuttle landing on the line.

“My fitness has been high as I had to run in the previous matches which were also tough matches. I just played one shot at a time.

“I don’t think I have arrived yet. I still need to improve on many areas. I need to become more strong mentally.”

Lee will now take on the winner of the other semi-final between H S Prannoy and China’s current World no. 2 Shi Yu Qi.

Tai Tzu, a former world number one, who has decided to retire after this season, had finished runner-up at Malaysia Open Super 1000 last week.

On Saturday, the fourth seeded Taiwanese erased a six-point deficit in the second game to get past Jia Min.

Tai Tzu was behind in both the games but stepped up just in time to outwit Jia Min, who suffered her fifth straight loss to the Taiwanese in as many meetings.

The Chinese shuttlers continued their impressive run with two of their pairs progressing to the finals of mixed and women’s doubles competition in the tournament.

World No. 5 Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin were the first to dazzle as they beat Korea’s Kim Won Ho and Jeong Na Eun 21-19, 21-18 in the mixed doubles semifinals at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall.

The World No. 7 pair of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu then prevailed over compatriots Li Wen Mei and Liu Xuan Xuan 19-21, 21-17, 21-18 in the women’s doubles semi-finals.

They will meet Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan, who also notched up a 21-13 21-16 win against Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of Korea to enter the summit clash.

World no. 7 mixed doubles pair of Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand also made it to the summit clash after beating Ye Hong Wei and Lee Chia Hsin of Chinese Taipei in the second semifinal.

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