KUALA LUMPUR: Two national shuttlers have advanced to the final of the 2015 Russian Open Gold GP Badminton Championship.
In the semifinals at the Olympics Sport Village in Vladivostok today, leading national men’s doubles pair, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong who are the second seeds, were stiffly opposed by compatriots, Hoon Thien How and Lim Khim Wah before winning in 15-21, 21-19 and 21-18.
Waiting for them in the final on Sunday are the top seeds, Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov from the host nation, according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website ;www.bwfbadminton.org.
Vladimir and Ivan beat Indian pair Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy, the third seeds, in 19-21, 21-7 and 21-16.
Leading national mixed doubles pair, Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying did not have to work hard against the hosts pair of Vitalij Durkin and Nina Vislova in another semi-final clash.
They won 22-20 in the first set before their opponents withdrew after one of them was injured.
Chan and Goh are scheduled to face Japanese pair Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino who beat Indian pair Akshay Dewalkar and Prajakta Sawant 21-10 and 21-18 in their semifinal match.
National singles player, Zulfadli Zulkiffli, who was fourth seeded, fell to a shock defeat of 12-21 and 20-22 to Estonian representative, Raul Must in the semi-final action. The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) did not send any representatives in the women’s singles and doubles for the championship which offers overall prize money of US$50,000 (approx RM200,000). --Bernama