Wang Zheng Ching, of China, continued his imperious march in the Bahrain International Series Badminton Tournament 2023 by delivering another scintillating performance in the first men’s singles semi-final and defeating India’s Manraj Singh 21-10, 21-18, at the Indian Club last night.
The Chinese ace, who had swept all comers aside on his way to the semis, was hardly troubled in the first set as he raced to a 15-8 lead before closing it out easily.
Singh put up a more spirited fightback in the second set, drawing level at 7-7 at one point but Wang pulled away again to lead 18-15 with his victory seemingly imminent within the next couple of minutes.
But Singh wasn’t about to give up and won two quick points through powerful overhead smashes to reduce the deficit to just one, at 18-17.
Wang, then, hit two powerful smashes of his own to get within one point of winning the game, at 20-18, and duly wrapped it up with an overhead smash so powerful that the sound of the racquet hitting the shuttlecock echoed around the large hall.
He will now meet India’s Ayush Shetty in today’s final after the latter turned on the heat in his semi-final encounter with China’s Liu Lang to win a high-octane clash 21-10, 21-19.
The result was unexpected because Liu was favoured to win the second men’s singles semi but Shetty had other plans as he powered his way to a 13-6 lead in the first set before closing it out in style.
Shetty continued to dominate in the second set, leading 15-10 and then 18-11 before Liu staged a remarkable recovery to come within just one point of the Indian player, at 19-20.
But Shetty managed to overcome his nerves and dinked a lovely drop-shot just over the net which evaded Liu’s desperate scramble before raising his arms in triumph and an almost all-Indian audience clapped and cheered for him.
The first women’s singles semi-final, meanwhile, saw a stunning fightback by China’s Chen Lu who overcame a five-point deficit, at 8-13, to eventually overtake India’s Meghana Reddy Mareddy and clinch the first set 24-22.
Strangely, in the second set, Mareddy appeared to have run completely out of steam leading to Chen running away with the second set 21-5, to clinch her place in today’s final.
Her opponent will be Dai Wang who fought back from a first-set loss against Wu Lou Yu in the second women’s singles semi-final to take the game 12-21, 21-15, 21-17.
But there was no reversal of fortune in store for India’s Rohit Jayakumar and Vishnu Sreekumar who went down in straight sets to China’s Xie Hao Nan and Zeng Wei Han in the first men’s doubles semi-final.
Victory for the Chinese pair seemed assured when they easily took the first set 21-8, and they duly sealed it by taking the second set 21-13.
In the second men’s doubles semi-final, Thailand’s Sirawit Sothon and Nathapat Trinkajee cruised to a 21-11, 21-15, win over China’s Cui He Chen and Sun Wen Jun.
The Thai pair fought back from 4-8 down to take the first set before racing into a 13-10 lead in the second and eventually sealing their place in today’s final.
Earlier, Chinese pair Ding Ke Yun and Wang Zi Men were made to work hard for their eventual 21-18, 21-19 women’s doubles semi-finals win over Indonesia’s Velisha Christina and Bernadine Wardana.
The Indonesians squandered a 10-6 lead in the first set, allowing their opponents to first draw level at 14-14 before seeing them win it comfortably.
In the second set, Christina and Wardana managed to draw level at 18-18, having trailed their opponents by two or three points earlier, but then fell away as the Chinese pair wrapped up their win.
And, in the second women’s doubles semi-final, China’s Wang Ting Ge and Wang Yi Duo faced little resistance from Iran’s Ferdous Foroughi and Mobina Nedei as they easily wrapped up the victory, 21-6, 21-6.
Meanwhile, in the first mixed doubles semi-final, the Chinese pair of Zhou Zhi Hong and Yang Jia Ye had to stave off a determined fightback by Indian duo Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadhya Variyath before wrapping up a 21-17, 14-21, 21-15 victory.
Cheering them on in the stands was 10-year-old Aadhya Anuj, a grade four student at the Indian School, who is a big fan of her namesake, Variyath.
“I hope she wins,” Aadhya, who hopes to represent India at badminton in the Olympics one day, said as the Indian duo took the second set.
Unfortunately, Variyath and her partner didn’t but that didn’t stop the younger Aadhya from giving them a standing ovation.
Later, in the second mixed doubles semi-final, the UAE pair of Taabia Khan and Wildan Sholih gave China’s Ma Xi Xiang and Wu Meng Ying a royal scare by winning the first set 21-13.
But Ma and Wu fought back to take the next two sets 21-13, 21-13 and the game to set a date in today’s final with Zhou and Yang.