Sydney: Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie was through to the 2019 Australian Open final after he had to dig deep to oust No. 1 seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan 22-20, 13-21, 21-16 in the semi-final on Saturday. He will set up an all-Indonesian final with Anthony Sinisuka Ginting on Sunday.
Anthony Sinisuka Ginting who is also known as “Badminton’s giant killer” has also set his sights on the Australian Open throne as he overcame Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan 21-17, 21-14 in another men’s singles semi-final.
In men’s doubles, after beating World No. 4 seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 21-15, 21-15 in the quarter-final, Korea’s 2014 world champions Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Cheol seemed to have returned to their old form by outlasting World No. 3 Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen 21-11, 14-21, 21-17 on Saturday to enter the final.
The World No. 34 Korean pair will play World No. 2 Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan on Sunday.
Meanwhile, hopes for Ratchanok Intanon and Nitchaon Jindapol to set up an all-Thailand women’s singles final were dashed when both players were dispatched from the tournament on Saturday.
The No. 4 seed Ratchanok Intanon went down in straight sets to No. 1 seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 17-21, 15-21, while Nitchaon Jindapol fought hard, but was clearly out of stamina in the decider by going down to No. 2 seed Chen Yufei 10-21, 25-23, 6-21 in 57 minutes.
Indonesia’s mixed doubles No. 6 seeds Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti continued their strong run at the tournament to see off No. 2 seeds Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan 21-13, 12-21, 21-17 in the final four. The Indonesian pair will battle No. 1 seeds Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping of China for the Australian Open crown.
