Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva reached the final at the YONEX French Open 2018 after an one-and-a-half-hour-match against Shin/Lee from South Korea.
On Saturday, Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva won the semi-final in Women’s Doubles in Paris after three intense games.
After losing the first game with 15-21 to their opponents Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan, the Bulgarian pair came back strong and won the following two games with 21-15 each.
- We did not expect to win today, as we lost against this pair last week at the Denmark Open. So, we knew that it would be a tough match, Stefani Stoeva said after the match.
The longest match of the tournament
The semi-final match was a very long one, with a lot of rallies: It lasted 94 minutes in total, which is the longest match of the tournament so far.
- We did not feel tired, because we also had long matches in the rounds before. We train very hard, so this is helping us to be fit on court, Stefani Stoeva said.
With the win on Saturday, Stefani and Gabriela are the last Europeans that are still in the tournament.
Tomorrow, the pair has to face the Japanese pair, Matsumoto/Nagahara, who is currently world-ranked number five and the defending World Champion.
- Reaching the semi-finals was quite a surprise for us. Now, we reached the finals, which is unbelievable. But of course, we fight for more now, Gabriela Stoeva said.