Vladivostok: Malaysia’s unseeded Chan Peng Soon/Cheah Yee See have entered the Russian Open Grand Prix final as the mixed doubles pair beat home favorite – the All England champion Vladimir Ivanov and his partner Ekaterina Bolotova 14-15, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 in the mixed doubles semi-final on Saturday.
Chan/Cheah are set to take on Keiichiro Matsui/Akane Araki of Japan in the final.
Soniia Cheah who looked like her career would be over after suffering a serious leg injury in August 2013, made an encouraging return to badminton as she put up a spirited fight to upset No. 3 seed Natalia Perminova of Russia 12-10, 12-14, 11-2, 11-3 to advance to the Russian Open final.
“I made a lot of mistakes but will try to decrease the number of errors in the final,” said Cheah.
Regardless of how Cheah perform in the final, her strong run of form at the Russia Open GP would definitely boost her confidence level in the 2107 SEA Games that will take place in Kuala Lumpur next month.
In men’s doubles, No. 2 seeds Chooi Kah Ming/Low Juan Sheng of Malaysia who will play at the World Championships in Glasgow next month, outlasted home shuttlers Konstantin Abramov/Alexandr Zichenko 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6 to advance to the final.
Chooi/Low next face the 2016 All England champions Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov of Russia in the final. The Russian pair overcame the challenge from Indian pair M.R Arjun/S. Ramachandran 11-3, 11-2, 11-4 in the semi-finals.
