Chinese women win Olympic re-match in South Korea

In a rematch of their controversial London Olympic badminton encounter, China’s Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli beat South Korea’s Jung Kyung-Eun and Kim Ha-Na yesterday to reach the Korea Open women’s doubles final. The top-seeded Chinese duo overpowered the South Koreans 21-16, 21-11 for a comfortable straight sets win. The pairings were among eight women’s doubles players who were disqualified from the Olympics last summer for trying to lose round-robin matches to secure a more favorable draw in the quarterfinals. They were boed off court after the Chinese pair, top seeds at the Games, lost to the South Koreans in straight sets, but there was no repeat when they met again in South Korea. In Sunday’s final, Yu and Yang will face compatriots Ma Jin and Tang Jinhua, who upset the second-seeded Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark 21-19, 19-21, 21-11. In the men’s doubles, the top-seeded Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark reached the final, after defeating Hong Wei and Shen Ye of China 19-21, 21-10, 21-18. The Danes will take on South Korea’s Lee Yong-dae and Ko Sung-hyun, who took care of the No. 2 seeds Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia, 21-17, 21-11. Lee won the Korea Open with his retired doubles partner, Chung Jae-sung, in 2007, 2010 and 2011, while Boe and Mogensen were the 2009 Korea Open winners. World number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia sailed into the men’s singles final with a 21-11, 21-18 win over Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong. His opponent in the championship match will be Du Pengyu of China, who got past Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia 21-12, 21-17. Lee is chasing his second consecutive Korea Open crown. The top seeds in the mixed doubles, Xu Chen and Ma Jin of China, will also go for their second Korea Open title in a row. They beat Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam of Thailand 21-12, 21-14 to set up an all-Chinese final against Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei. Wang Shixian made it to the women’s singles final by beating Minatsu Mitani of Japan, 21-11, 21-17, and will face the unseeded South Korean Sung Ji-Hyun. From AFP