by Simon Daish
Kasumi Ishikawa and Mima Ito came through a difficult encounter in the upper half of the Women’s Doubles semi-finals draw, as the fourth seeds took on the top seeded pairing of Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato.
The opening of the contest favoured the top seeds as Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato made the brighter start to the match, but the lower seeded duo of Kasumi Ishikawa and Mima Ito improved and eventually prevailed over four games (11-8, 7-11, 7-11, 8-11).
Opposing Kasumi Ishikawa and Mima Ito in the final will be Matilda Ekholm and Georgina Pota, after the Swedish and Hungarian players partnered up to success in the other semi-finals match.
Matilda Ekholm and Georgina Pota were the sole European representatives in the last four and they will continue to carry the hopes of the continent in the final after they saw off Manika Batra and Mouma Das (11-4, 8-11, 14-12, 14-12) ending India’s appearance in the competition.
“We are really happy and it was a really tough match but this was our aim – to play in the final – we were second seeded. But if I have to be honest I didn’t think that it will be this difficult, they played really well. It was hard for us to finish the points!” reflected Matilda Ekholm and Georgina Pota after the match.
Disappointment for India in the Women’s Doubles semi-finals was countered in the penultimate round of the Men’s Doubles tournament as Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran enjoyed a successful outing on the table.
Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran overcame the challenge of fellow compatriots Amalraj Anthony and Sanil Shetty (11-3, 12-10, 11-8) to advance through to the title match.
“It’s a proud moment when we play against other Indians in international tournaments, but we took it as a regular match. We prepared, played well and won the match”, stated the victorious Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
Awaiting the Indian duo in the final is Japan’s Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura, who defeated Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi across five ends (11-9, 5-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-6).
