A SHOT AT HISTORY
Dechapol, Sapsiree in All England title showdown
Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai will be bidding to become the first Thai winners of the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships today.
The fifth-seeded mixed doubles duo will vie for the biggest prize of their career after advancing to the final of the US$1.1 million (approximately 33 million baht) tournament in Birmingham.
They fended off a fightback from sixth seeds Seo Seung-Jae and Chae Yu-Jung of South Korea to progress with a 21-18, 17-21, 21-19 victory, earning their first ever final appearance at a BWF World Tour Super 1000 event.
The Thai pair, who dropped a game for the first time this week yesterday, will meet either home hopes Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith or fifth seeds Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia in the championship decider today at Arena Birmingham.
Dechapol and Sapsiree are coming off their most successful season in 2019 which saw them win three titles at the Singapore Open (Super 500), Korea Open (Super 500) and Macau Open (Super 300). Their other win together was in 2017 at the Swiss Open — then a Grand Prix Gold tournament.
They have had a sluggish start to 2020, losing in the second round of their first two tournaments — the Malaysia Masters and Indonesia Masters.
Earlier, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark defeated Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 17-21, 21-13, 21-19 in the men’s singles semi-finals in 73 minutes.
Axelsen, a runner-up to Japan’s world No.1 Kento Momota last year, will face either top seed Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan or fifth-seeded compatriot Anders
Antonsen in today’s title match.
China’s Du Yue and Li Yin-Hui advanced to the women’s doubles final after beating Lee So-Hee and Shin Seung-Chan of South Korea 21-17, 21-17 in 50 minutes.
They will play the winners of the second semi-final between seventh seeds Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo and third seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan.
Olympic gold medallists Takahashi and Matsutomo, currently No.7 in the world, stunned China’s world No.1 pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan 21-12, 20-22, 21-12 in the quarter-finals on Friday.