Jeju: Malaysia’s World No. 67 men’s singles shuttler Daren Liew will face World No. 6 Son Wan Ho of Korea in the Korea Masters final on Sunday. This will be their first meeting in about 9 months since they last played each other at New Zealand Open in March.
Both shuttlers had straight-sets wins Saturday where the unseeded Liew needed only 32 minutes to oust unseeded Taiwanese player Chen Chun-Wei 21-13, 21-7 in the semi-finals. The 29-year-old Malaysian pulled off a huge upset on Friday where he disposed defending champion and No. 3 seed Lee Dong Keun 21-19, 21-16 in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, No. 1 seed Son was stretched to limit at times but managed to claw back from behind on both sets to snatch the semi-final match from India’s Kashyap Parupalli 23-21, 21-16 in 49 minutes.
After series of disappointments in Superseries tournaments this year including an early exit at Rio Olympics, Son who held a 3-1 career head-to-head advantage over Liew will have a shot at the Korea Masters title in front of his home crowd on Sunday.
In women’s competition, No. 1 seed Sung Ji Hyun and unseeded Lee Jang Mi have set up an all-Korean affair in the final.
Sung overpowered compatriot Kim Ga Eun 21-13, 21-8 on Saturday while Lee eased past Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira 21-14, 21-16 in 47 minutes.
Korea Masters is the last Grand Prix Gold tournament of 2016 and offers a total prize money of $120,000.
