Semi-finals - WD : The Stoeva sisters worn their opponents out

Things are getting serious in Coubertin. It’s the semi-finals day. The best players fought for a place in finals in women’s doubles this morning. The crowd witnessed a tough defeat for the 2017 indonesian title holders against the Japanese world champions. In the othe semi-final, the Stoeva sisters beat the 2017 French Open finalist after a match that was similar to a marathon...

The STOEVA into their first Super 750 final

The sisters from Bulgaria faced a pair from Korea for a place in Final. Both pairs met last week in Denmark and the Koreans won the previous battle in two straight games. But the end of today’s match in Pierre de Coubertin stadium turned out differently.

At the break of the 1st set, the Korean were leading 11-10, and they managed to take it 21-15, helped with some easy mistakes from the Bulgarian. We witnessed a lack of communication between the two sisters. They finally managed to raise their level of badminton in the middle of the second game and took it 21-15 with some incredible strokes.

From this point, the match took a different turn, and the score was quite close between the two pairs. One of the Korean have been given a yellow card because she took too long time between the points. The Umpire even gave her a red card as she decided to take off her shoes between 2 points, probably because of an injury.

In the end, the Bulgarian managed to take advantage of their opponent’s weakness. Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva “didn’t feel tired” after a 90 minutes-match. “We are happy with our performance today and we will enjoy the final. We’ll do our best against our opponents with the support of this amazing crowd”, they said after their match.

Japan prevails

The Indonesians RAHAYU/ POLII, who won the 2017 edition of the French Open here in Coubertin, won’t be able to defend their title tomorrow. They had been defeated by the world no 5 from Japan (MATSUMOTO/NAGAHARA).

During the match, they couldn’t play at their best level and gave up in the first game, 21-10. It seemed that the level of badminton played by the Japanese pair was clearly too high for them. In the end, the defending champion lost 21-10 21-8. After their match, they said : “We obviously didn’t play our best today. But we are satisfied of our performance because we reached the semi-finals in the 7 last tournaments. It means we managed to be consistent.”

How to follow the competition ?
Click here : https://www.yonexifb.com/uk/living-ifbs/follow-the-competition

RESULTS HERE