Mulheim: Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai cemented their status as the No. 1 mixed doubles pair in Malaysia after they beat Niclas Nohr/Sara Thygesen in the final of German Open 21-14, 22-20 to claim their third international title.
After winning the German Open, Goh/Lai heightened expectations for winning the gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games that will be held from April 4 to April 15, 2018.
Before the German Open, Goh/Lai had won the Malaysia International Challenge and Scotland Open in 2016. The pair took home USD $11,850 after their Sunday’s victory.
Next up for Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai will be the 2018 All England in Birmingham, UK.
Men’s singles No. 4 seed Chou Tien Chen and No. 6 seed Angus Ng Ka Long fought tooth and nail till the last minute. Ng tried to claw back in the decider by narrowing the gap from 15-20 to 18-20. But, Chou was able to raise his game and intensity levels at the crucial moment to hit a jump smashing towards Ng’s right baseline to score the match point. Chou immediately fell to the floor and celebrated his ultimate win in 84 minutes.
In the women’s competition, No. 1 seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan fought back from dropping a set to beat No. 4 seed Chen Yufei of China 21-19, 6-21, 21-12 in a three-set thriller.
The confusion among players and service judge regarding the questionable 1.15-meter service rule was in full display when No. 7 seeds Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto were called for service fault for 4 times in the first set and 1 time in the second set. The service faults were clearly huge distraction to the Indonesians.
“We started very well in the first set, but because I was getting all those service fault calls, I started to lose my concentration. I kept thinking how to avoid the service fault calls. In the second set, same thing happened, we were leading, and all of the sudden I got the service fault call, it’s huge distraction for me,” said Fajar Alfian.
“I am very unhappy with the service fault calls,” added Alfian.
Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto went down to Japanese pair the No. 6 seeds Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko 16-21, 18-21.
