Bali: The World No. 9 mixed doubles pair, Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying staged a strong comeback in their second Group A match against World No. 14 Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Bøje of Denmark at the 2021 BWF World Tour Finals on Thursday, coming back from 1-6, 4-9, in the decider to beat the Denmark pair 21-17, 19-21, 21-16.
Chan/Goh already qualified for the semi-finals after Thursday’s victory and will play World No. 4 Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino on Friday.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s World No. 8 Lee Zii Jia has also confirmed his place in the semi-finals of the 2021 BWF World Tour Finals after recording his second victory in Group B action by beating French player, Toma Junior Popov 21-13, 21-19 on Thursday.
The No. 2 seed will play his last Group B match against Indian player, Kidambi Srikanth on Friday.
In the Group A women’s doubles competition, Malaysia’s unseeded Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan created a surprise to upset No. 1 seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai 23-21, 21-14.
The victory provided Tan/Muralitharan a timely lifeline to stand a chance of advancing to the semi-finals. If they can defeat the Tokyo Olympics gold medalists – Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu on Friday, they will be eligible for the knockout stage.
“In some previous tournaments, I didn’t get to show my best performance due to a lack of self-confidence. Even now I am still trying to regain my confidence and motivation in every match,” said Muralitharan.
“However, I am very happy in today’s match because I was able to increase my confidence level a bit and I have to thank my partner who is always supportive on the court,” added Muralitharan.
World No. 12 men’s doubles pair, Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia, has also booked a spot in the semi-finals after defeating Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan of Indonesia 12-21, 21-11, 21-18 in their second Group B match. Ong/Teo will play World No. 6 Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan to determine the champions and runners-up of the group on Friday.
