PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s newly-turned professional shuttlers Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani clawed their way into the 2024 China Open badminton doubles final after a hard-fought semifinal against an Indonesian pair.
The world No 12 pair defeated Muhammad Shohibul Fikri-Daniel Marthin 21-14, 24-22 two weeks after being defeated 16-21, 21-19, 21-13 by the Indonesian combination in the second round of the Hong Kong Open.
In the final today (Sunday), Goh-Izzuddin will meet the winner of the other semifinal match between Malaysian pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and China’s world No 7 He Ji Teng-Ren Xiang Yu.
The match comes a month after Goh-Izzuddin wrested the Japan Open title with a stunning 21-19, 21-15 victory over reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung-jae of South Korea.
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The first game had got off to a nervous start with both pairs making unforced errors. Goh-Izzuddin were trailing 8-10 after six minutes but they unleashed some power play to take a 11-10 lead at the break.
They did not look back after that and raced ahead with some accurate low cross-court drives to win the game 21-14 in 15 minutes.
The second game saw Fikri-Marthin determined to force a rubber game as they took an early 9-7 lead. Again, the tenacious Malaysians fought back hard and took a 11-10 lead at the break.
It was a tense point-for-point battle towards the end of the game which again saw the Malaysians displaying great combination by setting each other for the killer smashes. They lost three match points before securing the game in 26 minutes.
Meanwhile, National professional mixed doubles players Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai are one step away from a hat-trick of titles this season when they reached the final also by knocking out home pair Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi Saturday.
In the semi-final action held at Changzhou Olympic Sports Center, the married couple ranked 12th in the world came up with a positive approach to defeat their opponents in straight sets 21-18, 21-18 in 51 minutes.
They will be meeting either Indonesian pair Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja or China’s Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping in the final.
“Very happy with this achievement as it is our third final this season.
“It is also the first final of a Super 1000 status tournament so we want to emerge as champions,” said Shevon in the audio shared by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
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