Sydney: Malaysia’s World No. 8 men’s doubles pair – Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi continued their strong run in Sydney to reach the final of the 2022 Australian Open on Saturday.
Teo/Ong recovered from dropping the first set to beat the Chinese pair, World No. 28 He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong 14-21, 21-17, 21-18 in the semi-final action that lasted 72 minutes. This would also be Ong/Teo’s first final of the BWF World Tour event in 2022.
Highlights of Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi vs. He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong in the 2022 Australian Open semi-finals:
They will play another Chinese pair – World No. 14 Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi on Sunday.
Liu/Ou, on the other hand, survived a big scare as they narrowly overcame World No. 32 Lee Jhe-Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan of Taiwan 12-21, 23-21, 24-22.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s World No. 33 men’s singles player Ng Tze Yong’s bid of entering his first final of a World Tour event came to a halt when he squandered a 13-6 lead in the first set to eventually lost to World No. 19 Lu Guang Zu of China 18-21, 15-21.
Highlights of Ng Tze Yong vs. Lu Guang Zu in the 2022 Australian Open semi-finals:
For Ng, reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open would help push up his world ranking. He needed to be among the world’s top 32 to be eligible to compete in next year’s BWF Super 1000 tournaments including the Malaysia Open which is scheduled to start next January.
Ng has also been registered to compete at the Bahrain International Challenge starting from November 29 to December 4 to improve his world ranking.
As for Lu Guang Zu, he will set up an all-Chinese final with teammate World No. 29 Shi Yuqi on Sunday.
In another men’s semi-final, Shi was having a tough time playing against the World No. 15 Kodai Naraoka of Japan. Shi needed 85 minutes to fend off the challenge from the Japanese, walking away with a 21-16, 16-21, and 21-19 win.
Highlights of Shi Yu Qi vs. Kodai Naraoka in the 2022 Australian Open semi-finals:
The women’s singles final will see the No. 1 seed An Se Young of Korea to play unseeded Gregoria Mariska Tunjung from Indonesia on Sunday, while the Korean team already guaranteed both gold and silver medals in the mixed doubles event when Kim Won Ho/Jeong Na Eun will battle compatriots Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung.
After advancing to the final of the HYLO Open on Nov 6, 2022, Benyapa Aimsaard/Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand once again made the final of another BWF World Tour Super 300 event. The Aimsaard sisters will take on Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu of China for the women’s doubles crown.
