Danish men’s doubles pair Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen are through to the final of the VICTOR China Open 2018 in Changzhou.

The current European champions will meet an Chengkai/Zhou Haodong of China in Sunday’s final after the 8th seeds beat  Chen Hung Ling and Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan Madison Keys 21-13, 21-19 to reach their first final of a Super 1000 tournament.

- It is kind of absurd to move into the final. That is for sure our biggest career’s result. We are extremely happy and proud of our achievement.

- They’ve been playing really well. Not only in today’s semi-final, I mean the whole tournament they  have been really good. I think they feel very well in this arena. They are both more aggressive in the serving situations. And they could lift the pace of their game“, Denmark’s national coach Jakob Høi told badminton.dk. 

Carolina Marin advances to first China Open final

Olympic champion Carolina Marin beat former wold champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in three games to advance to the China Open women's final, taking her a step closer to win another big tournament just after her victory at the YONEX Japan Open last week.

Marin, 25, was at her imperious best in the second and third game defeating her Asian opponent, and 8th seed 15-21, 21-12, 21-13 to reach her first China Open final.

„One more final!“, the Spaniard wrote on her Facebook profile and added: „Nozomi Okuhara fought very well. I wish her good luck in Korea next week.“

Bulgarian duo of Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva lost their semi-final encounter against Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara of Japan 21-16, 21-12.

Reigning world champion Kento Momota of Japan eased past home favourite Shi Yuqi in the semis to reach another final at the very big stage. The world number two shuttler will face unseeded Anthony Ginting of Indonesia on Sunday. The Indonesien stunned former world champion Viktor Axelsen in round two of the 1 Million Dollars event.

The VICTOR China Open 2018 finals:

MS: Kento Momota (JPN) - Anthony Ginting (INA)
WS: Carolina Marin (ESP) - Chen Yufei (CHN)
MD: Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen - Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong (CHN)
WD: Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (JPN) - Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN)
XD: Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong (CHN) - Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui (CHN)