The European Champions are having a great time in Japan this week, taking victory on an emotional semifinals day at the Kumamoto Masters Japan 2024.
Since winning gold at the European Championships in Saarbrucken, Germany, and competing in their home Paris Olympics, the mixed doubles pair have been looking for their first World Tour final of 2024. They narrowly missed out two weeks ago at the Hylo Open, but they have been able to put on an impressive run in Kumamoto, Japan.
Their semifinal was against the up-and-coming Chinese pair of Guo Xin Wa/ Chen Fang Hui, who won the Korea Masters just last week, adding to their Macau and Thailand Open titles this year.
Going back-to-back may have taken its toll as the energetic Gicquel/ Delrue just had too much for them today, maintaining their perfect record, winning 21-14, 21-11.
They now have a chance to win their first World Tour Super 500 title and will have to overcome the accomplished Dechapol Puavaranukroh and his new partner, Supissara Paewsampran.
Reigning champion bows out
Following his Olympic glory in Paris, Viktor Axelsen took the Hong Kong Open crown. However, since then, the Dane has not been able to rekindle the same magic in China, Denmark and now Japan.
Axelsen had a marathon three-game tussle with Christo Popov in the quarterfinal, celebrating the win with passion. In today’s semifinal, he came across a comfortable Li Shi Feng who is finding some good form. Curiously, for two top 10 players, this was their first encounter with each other.
Li, who had significant amount of tape on both knees, put in a robust performance, winning 21-16, 21-15. He faces Malaysia’s Leung Jun Hao who defeated Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in a thrilling must-watch semifinal.
Axelsen told his fans:
- Frustrating to lose as always, but I'm happy to get four matches here taking everything into considertation... Will do my best to recover properly before next week's China Masters.
Home hopefuls
In the first edition of the Kumamoto Masters, three out of the five events went to China, while the singles went to Indonesia and Demark. This year, Japan have live chances in three of the finals tomorrow.
Hoki/ Kobayashi glided past the new combination of Tan Wee Kiong/ Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn. Yuki Fukushima/ Mayu Matsumoto followed suit in the women’s doubles. Meanwhile, Akane Yamaguchi has enjoyed this week, holding off a fighting performance from Pornpawee Chochuwong to win in three.
Tunjung double
Indonesia’s Gregoria Tunjung is the last remaining 2023 champion and is looking to do the double in Japan after the standout match of the day. It took almost an hour for Tunjung to get over the line against Korea’s Sim Yu Jin, winning in three gruelling games, 18-21, 21-17, 21-19.
We now have an exciting women’s singles final between Tunjung and Yamaguchi, with their 2024 head-to-head being 1-1, both three-game battles.