Momota and Chen look for back-to-back crowns
>> Kento Momota and Chen Yufei will be bidding to win their second straight titles at the US$700,000 Fuzhou China Open today.
The other three finals will also feature the defending champions, who are attempting to win backto-back crowns at the BWF World Tour Super 750 event.
Men’s top seed and world No.1 Momota defeated unseeded Dane Rasmus Gemke 21-19, 21-8 to set up the men’s singles title match against second seed Chou Tien-chen.
The Taiwanese downed another Danish star, fourth seed Anders Antonsen, in the second semi-final 21-10, 21-12 at Haixia Olympic Sports Centre last night.
Chen will battle it out against Nozomi Okuhara for the women’s singles title.
Third seeded Chen survived a three-game encounter against Michelle Li of Canada, winning 20-22, 21-8, 21-17 in an hour and 12 minutes.
Japan’s fourth seed Okuhara earned her place in the decider after top seed Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan retired in the third game while trailing 6-11 of their semifinal match yesterday.
Okuhara lost the opening game 19-21, but recovered to take the second 21-12.
World No.1 pair Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo, the defending champions from Indonesia, will take on Japan’s fourth seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda in the men’s doubles final.
In the mixed doubles title match, holders and tops seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China will meet fellow Chinese and second seeds Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping.
Also in the women’s doubles decider, Lee So-Hee and Shin Seung-Chan of South Korea will play Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.