by Simon Daish

Third seeds Daniel Gorak and Wang Zengyi went face-to-face with the top seeded pairing of Mikhail Paikov and Grigory Vlasov of Russia, in what was expected to be a closely fought out encounter.

However, the Russian duo never really managed to get themselves into the match and a dominant display from Gorak and Wang saw the tie brought to a conclusion after just three ends (11-4, 11-6, 11-7).

“It’s the first time that we play together, and we’ve got straight to the finals, which is a delight for us. The play in the semi-finals was steady and easy. Many points were gained on the short game, moreover, the opponents couldn’t receive all of our services”, said the victorious duo of Daniel Gorak and Wang Zengyi.

The other semi-finals match in the Men’s Doubles category pitted Yuto Kizukuri and Masaki Takami up against Turkish opponents Ibrahim Gunduz and Abdullah Yigenler, and the Japanese pairing prevailed across five games (11-8, 4-11, 14-12, 10-12, 11-6) to join Daniel Gorak and Wang Zengyi in the final.

Miyu Kato and Misaki Morizono have booked their place in the Women’s Doubles final, after the no.3 seeds came through their semi-finals encounter against the mixed nationality pairing of Dana Cechova and Klaudia Kusinska.

The Czech Republic’s Dana Cechova and her partner Klaudia Kusinska of Poland actually made the brighter start in the last four, taking the opening game to establish the early advantage. But a resilient performance from Miyu Kato and Misaki Morizono resulted in four consecutive game wins for the Japanese partnership, sending them through to the next round (3-11, 13-11, 11-6, 11-6).

Awaiting Miyu Kato and Misaki Morizono in the final is the Chinese Taipei team of Lin Chia-Hsuan and Lin Po-Hsuan, who condemned Natalia Bajor and Katarzyna Grzybowska-Franc of Poland to a defeat across four games (8-11, 13-11, 11-6, 11-6) in the other semi-final tie.

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