by Neha Aggarwal

Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An and Cheng I-Ching stormed into the final of the Mixed Doubles knocking out Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem by the closest of the margins ( 11-7, 5-11, 11-5, 11-6, 5-11, 5-11, 11-9). With this they have already created history becoming the first ever pair from Chinese Taipei to reach the final of the mixed doubles event at the World Championships.

For Chen Chien-An, he is aiming for his second medal at the World Championships. At the Liebherr 2013 World Championships, he partnered Chuang Chih-Yuan to win the Men’s Doubles title beating China’s Hao Shuai and Ma Lin.

After the win, an elated Chen Chien-An said,”Because I’ve won a gold medal in men’s doubles before, I was quite nervous near the end of the match today. However, I still adjusted my emotional state, slowed down the rhythm, and told myself I can do it. When the score was ten to nine, I mainly just tried to control the game and find an opportunity to attack.”

They will now meet the Japanese pair of Kasumi Ishikawa and Maharu Yoshimura who beat Germany’s Petrissa Soja and China’s Fang Bo in a seven games thriller.

Impressively, Japan was trailing 1-3, the fans inside the packed Messe arena cheering loud for Solja nd Fang Bo. But the Japanese turned the tables as they fought back to win the match 4-3  (11-13, 12-14, 11-5, 6-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5).

Solja, impressed by the fans, yet dejected by the loss said, “The German fans are always cheering and just love watching table tennis. And we also had China supporting us. The atmosphere here is great; I wanted to play in the final so much.”

The Japanese pair will be aiming to change the color of the medal; at the 2015 World Championships they lost the finals of the mixed doubles to China’s Xu Xin and Korea’s Yang Haeun.

This time in Düsseldorf, they are so focused, certainly giving their more than 100% to get that gold for Japan.

Can Chinese Taipei stop them?

Match will be played at 15:00 local time. Watch LIVE on tv.ittf.com