Taipei: 29-year-old Daren Liew gave one of his greatest performance of his professional career in the semifinals of Chinese Taipei Masters, fighting hard to deny No. 5 seed Lin Yu Hsien of Taiwan with 11-9, 6-11, 11-3, 12-10 on Saturday.
Liew held off a stirring comeback from Lin in the fourth as the No. 5 seed Taiwanese came agonizingly close to forcing a decider when he levelled the score at 10-10. Liew then rallied to win the next 2 points to reach the Chinese Taipei Masters final.
Liew will play 23-year-old Sourabh Varma of India for a chance to win his maiden title after he turned professional. Varma who was on a comeback trail after being on the sidelines with multiple injuries, stormed into his third successive finals after he shocked the top seed Hsu Jen Hao 11-4, 11-7, 11-9 in the other semifinal tie.
However, two other Malaysian women’s doubles pairs have ultimately fizzled out after losing to 2 Japanese pairs.
Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean appeared sluggish at times as they struggled to tame the top seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan before losing 7-11, 7-11, 3-11 in 29 minutes. Lim Yin Loo/Yap Cheng Wen couldn’t find their rhythm on the court by going down 8-11, 9-11, 6-11 to No. 4 seeds Shiho Tanaka/ Koharu Yonemoto of Japan in 29 minutes.
In men’s doubles, No. 1 seeds Chen Hung Ling/Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan will play Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia for the Chinese Taipei Masters title, while Saena Kawakami and No. 3 seed Ayumi Mine will set up an all Japanese final in the women’s singles event.
