The Danish world No. 5 pair handily overpowered Roy King-Wan Arif 21-13, 21-19 in the men’s doubles semi-final, and will now meet the winners of the match between South Korea’s Jin Yong-Na Sung Seung and China’s He Ji Ting-Ren Xiang Yu in the final tomorrow.
The pair, ranked world No. 47, were sent packing in 43 minutes but can still be proud of what they have achieved in the Super 500 badminton championships after disposing of several seeded pairs en route to reaching the last four.
Roy King, 23, said they were not satisfied with their performance, especially the many unforced errors they committed in the second game, Bernama reported.
However, they will not wallow in self-pity as they look forward to their next assignment, the Australian Open in Sydney on June 11-16.
“I feel that you cannot compare us (with the seniors) based on this one tournament but (having been the only pair to reach the semi-finals), I feel that it’s a healthy competition for the men’s doubles camp as we continuously push each other to get better results,” he told reporters here today.
Wan Arif, 21, hopes they can be more consistent in defeating the big names and stay free from injuries. He also wants them to be bolder when making decisions during crucial points against higher-ranked pairs.
“Having reached the semi-finals here, I want us to set the same target in upcoming tournaments.
“I think we did well in this tournament as we managed to give a good fight to players in the top 10 and top 20 … it shows we are not too far behind them. We learnt from them how to control the rhythm during crucial points,” he said.
The young Malaysian pair were the only Malaysians in the men’s doubles semi-finals as their seniors were eliminated yesterday.
Ranked world No. 47, they beat Denmark’s world No. 18 pair of Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard, 21-18, 14-21, 21-18 in a dramatic quarter-final backed by a vociferous crowd to reach their first Super 500 tournament semi-final.
They had previously defeated Xie Hao Nan-Zeng Wei Han of China in the first round and stunned world No. 12 pair Lee Jhe Huei-Yang Po Hsuan of Taiwan 13-21, 21-15, 21-18 in the second round on Friday.