Taipei: Malaysia’s No. 4 seeds men’s pair Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong saved five championship points Sunday on their way to defeating Korea’s Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae 21-19, 15-21, 23-21 in the Chinese Taipei Open final.
The first game between Goh/Tan and Choi/Seo was very tight, with the Korean pair leading at 18-16 near the end of the game. Goh/Tan then managed to rally from behind to establish a 20-18 lead before winning 21-19.
Choi/Seo, however, got off to a strong start in the second set, as they once led 10-3 and eventually took the game 21-15.
In the decider, the Korean pair was pretty much ahead the whole game, leading 15 to 6, but the experienced Goh/Tan didn’t give up, as they started to narrow the gap by winning six consecutive points to stay 14-17. Then, Choi/Seo counterattacked and scored two points at 19 to 14 before Goh/Tan followed closely behind by winning another two points with 16-19.
Choi/Seo were on verge of victory as they reached the match point with 20-16 before squandering four consecutive match points, allowing Tan/Goh to tie the score at 20-20. Choi/Seo then again broke away with 21-20 but unable to win key points by committing an unforced error hitting the shuttlecock out of bound. This time, Tan/Goh turned the nerve-shredding moments with high quality badminton by taking their first lead of the game at 22-21, before Goh V Shem killed a high lift from Choi Solgyu near the net to seal the win.
“They started to lose their focus when they were in the lead 20-16. That’s when we started to get back to the game,” said Goh.
Tan also thanked the presence of Malaysian supporters whom motivated them to win the match.
“They (supporters) were the inspiration for us and gave us the strength to keep fighting,” said Tan Wee Kiong.
In men’s singles, local shuttler Chou Tien Chen won his third Chinese Taipei Open by overcoming Heo Kwang Hee of Korea 21-12, 21-13 in the final.
