Muelheim: A rampant Kento Momota has reached the German Open final on Saturday, beating Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark 24-26, 21-16, 21-15 in a 75-minutes battle.
Vittinghus fought tooth and nail to rack up the first set 26-24. But Momota appeared to regain his composure and rallied to win the second set 21-16.
The Dane was clearly running out of gas in the decider, where he was moving slow and was hitting a lot of out of bound shots. Momota was able to close out the decider 21-15 to set up an all-Japanese final with No. 3 seed Kenta Nishimoto.
Nishimoto was also made to work by No. 2 seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan before reaching the final with 21-15, 18-21, 21-16 triumph against Chou.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s challenge in 2019 German Open has fizzled out after Goh Jin Wei, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai, and Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin were all sent packing in the semi-finals.
Goh Jin Wei was clearly not at the same level as No. 2 seed Akane Yamaguchi, losing to the Japanese player 14-21, 11-21 in 33 minutes. Yamaguchi will meet No. 3 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the final. Intanon managed to pull off an upset to beat No. 1 seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-15, 21-12 on Saturday.
The mixed doubles No. 5 seeds Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai also failed to progress to the final by going down to No. 8 seeds Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yujung of Korea 17-21, 12-21.
Meanwhile, Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin were beaten by No. 2 seeds Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe of Japan 10-21, 12-21.
