Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir are one match away from winning their third world badminton championship after reaching the finals in Hyderabad, India, on Saturday.
The Indonesian pair recovered from a second-game loss and overhauled a five-point deficit midway the third game to finally triumph 21-18, 14-21, 21-18 over Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark in the mixed doubles semifinals, televised live on Global TV back in Indonesia.
Nova/Liliyana are now the only title hopes for Indonesia after Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro were beaten by their opponents in Indonesia vs. China semifinal tussle.
Taufik failed to rediscover the winning formula that earned him victory in 2005 as he went down 21-16, 21-6 to second seed Chen Jin.
Sony came out tougher than Taufik, but was not formidable enough to triumph over defending champion Lin Dan. After losing the first game, the fifth-seed Indonesian managed to preserve Indonesian fans hopes by taking the second game. As his stamina waned, he kept fighting only to lose out, 14-21, 21-13, 15-21.
Nova/Liliyana face another Danish duo, Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, in Sunday’s finals.
