Singapore: Singapore Open’s mixed doubles No. 8 seeds Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing were out of the tournament after suffering a semi-final loss to Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai from Thailand with 21-18, 11-21, 14-21 in 64 minutes on Saturday.
“The Thailand pair was more consistent. We lost focus towards the end of the match,” said Lai after the match.
“It’s definitely disappointing. We tried, but we only performed at about 60% to 70%,” added Lai.
The Singapore Open was the first Super Series semi-final pair has reached since they began their partnership in 2016.
Tan/Lai told reporter that their next tournament will be to participate in the Badminton Asia Championships 2017 in Wuhan, China from April 25 to April 30.
The Thai pair of Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai will take on No. 3 seeds Lu Kai-Huang Yaqiong from China in the final on Sunday.
Meanwhile, India is assured of a title at the US$350,000 (S$489,000) Superseries tournament, as Kidambi Srikanth will set up an all-Indian final with his teammate Sai Praneeth in the men’s singles final.
In the men’s doubles competition, Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark defeated the red-hot No. 1 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in the semi-final, and will meet No. 4 seeds Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China in the final on Sunday.
