VICTOR Korea Open 2010 - Evergreen Gade to take on World No 1

For the home fans, it will be the men’s doubles final that will be worth the wait as home favourites Lee Yong Dae-Jung Jae Sung will attempt to exact revenge over China’s Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng following the former’s devastating loss in the final of the World Championships in Hyderabad last August.

And to cap a wonderful week for the home crowd, youngster Sung Ju Hyun also qualified for the final of the women’s singles when she beat compatriot Bae Seung Hee 21-18, 17-21, 21-9. The Korean will take on China’s Wang Shixian in the final.

But once again, it was Gade who stole the show with another superb performance to beat China’s Chen Long 21-13, 10-21, 21-17 after another energy sapping 62-minute three-game thriller.

In the quarter-final, Gade toiled for 79 minutes before packing off Korea’s Park Sung Hwan and at the age of 33, recovering from the tough matches will be Gade’s biggest challenge in the final on Sunday.

And Chong Wei acknowledged the tough task ahead.

“Peter (Gade) will fight till the end, that’s for sure,” said the Malaysian after his 21-11, 21-13 win over China’s Chen Jin.

“I am happy with my present performance and hopefully I can start the New Year with a title tomorrow (Sunday).”

In the men’s doubles expectations are high of another wonderful show from China’s Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng, the reigning world champions, and Korea’s Lee Yong Dae-Jung Jae Sung.

In the World Championships final, the Chinese won 21-18, 16-21, 28-26 to win the gold but not before an amazing third game that saw the fans enthralled with wonderful rallies with at least eight match points being saved by the Koreans before they conceded the match to the Chinese.

Cai-Fu beat Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo-Yoshiteru Hirobe 21-15, 21-14 while the Koreans had to dig deep into their reserves to stop an all-China final with a hard fought 21-16, 22-20 win over Chai Biao-Zhang Nan.

In the mixed doubles, China’s Tao Jiaming-Zhang Yawen, who crushed Olympic champions Yong Dae-Lee Hyung Won in the first round and world champions Thomas Laybourn-Kamilla Rytter Juhl in the quarter-finals, checked into the final when they beat Flandy Limpele-Cheng Wen Hsing (Ina-Tpe) 21-12, 21-17.

China are already assured of the gold in the mixed doubles as Tao-Zhang will play compatriots He Hanbin-Yu Yang in the final.

Results (all semi-finals):

Men’s singles: Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt Chen Jin (Chn) 21-11, 21-13; Peter Gade (Den) bt Chen Long (Chn) 21-13, 10-21, 21-17.

Women’s singles: Sung Ji Hyun (Kor) bt Bae Seung Hee (Kor) 21-18, 17-21, 21-9; Wang Shixian (Chn) bt Kim Moon Hi (Kor) 21-17, 22-20.

Men’s doubles: Lee Yong Dae-Jung Jae Sung (Kor) bt Chai Biao-Zhang Nan (Chn) 21-16, 22-20; Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng (Chn) bt Hiroyuki Endo-Yoshiteru Hirobe (Jpn) 21-15, 21-14.

Women’s doubles: Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa (Jpn) bt Jung Kyung Eun-Yoo Hyun Young (Kor) 14-21, 21-17, 21-14; Shu Cheng-Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Ha Jung Eun-Lee Kyung Won (Kor) 21-5, 21-14.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 3:39 PM. Filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0