Almere: With 6 out of 10 matches have gone into three-sets, Saturday’s Dutch Open clearly one of the most intense and exciting semi-finals of 2015.
Women’s doubles No. 2 seeds Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria made their semi-finals extremely breathtaking to watch by turning them into grueling three-set match against Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth/Aprilsasi Putri Lejarsar Variella of Indonesia. Stoeva sisters couldn’t finish off the Indonesian pair when they were leading at 20-17 in the first set, allowing Bernadeth/Variella pushed the game to deuce. Fortunately, Stoeva sisters managed to dig very deep to claw back from 21-22 to barely win the first set with 25-23.
After 15-15, Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth/Aprilsasi Putri Lejarsar Variella, however, accelerated into the second set victory with 21-17.
Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva wouldn’t give up when they trailed 16-20 against the Indonesians in the decider. The sisters worked hard and win every single point to get the decider back to deuce. Although both Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva were taken to the distance by the Indonesians, they found their rhythm and fought back to win the grueling decider 23-21 in a match that lasted 88 minutes.
Former World No. 1 men’s pair Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia who were playing in their second semi-finals in two weeks, sailed through their first set by dismissing Lee Jhe-Huei/Lee Yang of Taiwan 21-19.
When they were leading at 19-18 in the second set, the Malaysians immediately found themselves at the mercy of the Taiwanese pair where they faced enormous pressure from Lee Jhe-Huei/Lee Yang’s relentless attacks, allowing the Taiwanese to even the match by winning the second set 21-19.
The strength, stability and power levels of Koo/Tan noticeably increased in the third set. Koo/Tan adopted a more steady attacking game to finally prevail over the Taiwan pair 21-16 in the decider. Koo/Tan will take on No. 2 seeds Manu Attri/B. Sumeeth Reddy of India in the finals.
Manu Attri/B. Sumeeth Reddy needed 70 minutes to see off Andrew Ellis/Peter Mills of England 22-20, 19-21, 21-14.
In mixed doubles, No. 4 seeds Ronan Labar/Emilie Lefel of France survived a ferocious battle with Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba of Poland, winning 20-22, 22-20, 21-16 to set up a final clash with No. 5 seeds Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam of Thailand.
Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam were dragged to their maximum before they won the first set 30-29 in the semi-finals against No. 2 seeds Jacco Arends/Selena Piek of Netherlands. The Thai pair then clinched their second set 21-18 to advance to the finals.
Women’s singles of the action at the Dutch Open saw No. 5 seed Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland pushed all the way by No. 6 seed Hsu Ya Ching, before she powered past Hsu to book final berth with a 21-17, 17-21, 21-12 semi-final victory in 64 minutes. Gilmour is set to take on No. 3 seed Karin Schnaase of Germany on Sunday.