Dechapol and Sapsiree eye first Superseries win, Tai faces Marin
>> Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai will be bidding to win their first Superseries title at the US$350,000 Singapore Open today.
The Thai pair claimed the scalps of another seeded duo after coming from behind to defeat eight seeds Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia 18-21, 21-11, 21-14 in 65 minutes yesterday.
It was a sweet revenge for the world No.11 Thais who lost to the Malaysians in the semi-finals of the Thailand Open in August last year.
They upset seventh seeds Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto of Indonesia in the quarter-finals on Friday.
It will be the pair’s first ever appearance in the final of a Superseries tournament and they will have a tough assignment against Lu Kai and Huang Yaquong of China in today’s final.
The Chinese third seeds needed almost an hour to defeat Kim Gi-Jung and Shin Seung-Chen of South Korea 16-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the other semi-final yesterday.
After l osing three finals together, Dechapol and Sapsiree claimed their breakthrough victory at the $120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold event in Basel last month.
Top seed Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan and No.4 Carolina Marin of Spain will again meet in the final of the women’s singles event.
World No.1 Tai, who also won the All England Open last month, defeated reigning Olympic champion Marin in the title match of the Malaysia Open Superseries Premier event in Kuching last Sunday.
Tai outplayed Zhang Beiwen of the US 21-19, 21-15, while Marin cruised past second seed Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea 21-9, 21-12 in the semi-finals.
It will be an all Indian-final in the men’s singles after B Sai Praneeth and Kidembi Srikanth won their semi-finals yesterday.
Praneeth defeated Lee Dong Keun of South Korea 21-6, 21-8, while Srikanth beat Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia 21-13, 21-14.
Praneeth defeated Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the quarter-finals on Friday.