Paris: The 36-year-old former World No. 1 men’s singles player Lee Hyun-Il of Korea who has not won a Superseries for a while, stormed into the French Open final after stunning No. 8 seed Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-15 in 39 minutes at the famous Coubertin Court in Paris.
Lee who has beaten Ng at the 2014 Canada Open final and last year’s Thailand Open, extended his career head to head record against Ng to 3-0 after Saturday’s victory. Lee will face China’s Shi Yuqi who is 16 years younger than him in the final on Sunday. The 20-year-old Shi battled past Taiwan’s Hsu Jen Hao with 21-7, 21-15 in the men’s singles semi-finals.
In men’s doubles, No. 2 seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark defeated compatriots Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Kim Astrup 21-19, 21-17 to set up a final showdown with last week’s Denmark Open runners-up Bodin Isara and Nipitphon Phuangphuapet of Thailand. Isara/Phuangphuapet claimed a hard-fought semi-finals match against Indonesians Angga Pratama/Ricky Karanda Suwardi with 21-18, 17-21, 21-19 in 68 minutes.
No one saw this coming, but unseeded women’s singles player Zhang Beiwen of USA stunned No. 7 seed Sun Yu of China 21-19, 21-15 to reach the women’s singles final. Zhang will play China’s He Bingjiao in the final after He Bingjiao edged past No. 5 seed Sung Ji-Hyun of Korea 27-25, 21-17 in the final four.
In the biggest upset of the day, World No. 1 women’s doubles pair and top seeds Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo of Japan were pushed to the limit by unseeded Chinese pair of Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, before losing the nail biter 21-16, 27-29, 15-21 to Chen/Jia in a 99 minutes marathon encounter. Chen/Jia will play No. 6 seeds Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee of Korea for the women’s doubles crown.
Mixed doubles top seeds Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha-Na of Korea were on course for the French Open title and will clash with No. 7 seeds Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen of China for the mixed doubles title on Sunday.
