Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai gave the home crowd much to cheer about as they overcame Olympic champions Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping at the GR TOYOTA GAZOO RACING Thailand Open 2022 after four straight losses.

The world champions continued to show great form at the Impact Arena, where they’d won all three finals in three weeks at the Asian Leg last year. Puavaranukroh and Taerattanachai fell behind in the opening game but recovered to beat the fourth seeds 16-21 21-12 21-16.

The other semifinal was a closer contest, with Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong holding off All England champions Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino 18-21 21-8 23-21.

Classic Contest

The women’s singles semifinal between Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchanok Intanon was in keeping with their record of producing engaging contests. Both players had trouble controlling the shuttle in the first two games, but the decider saw some great exchanges. Intanon held a narrow lead until the late stages, but Tai was sharp on the last three points, and took the match 10-21 21-13 21-19.

The final will be a repeat of the title clash at Tokyo 2020, with Chen Yu Fei parrying Pusarla V Sindhu’s challenge in straight games in the other semifinal.

Highlights

♦ Lee Zii Jia made his second final of the year beating senior compatriot Liew Daren 21-16 13-21 21-14. Up next for the Asian champion will be rising star Li Shi Feng, who beat fellow-qualifier Kodai Naraoka 21-19 16-21 21-19.

♦ Men’s doubles world champions Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi survived a close match against Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen 21-23 21-18 21-18.

♦ It will be an all-Japan matchup in the women’s doubles final with Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida taking on Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara, who are playing their first individual event of the year as a pair.

FULL RESULTS