World No. 4 Seo Seung-jae (Samsung Life Insurance) and Chae Yu-jung (Incheon International Airport) have reached the final of the Asian Individual Championships in badminton mixed doubles, beating world No. 1 Zheng Tie-wei and Huang Ya-chung (China). The pair’s confidence was boosted by their victory over the world’s top doubles team ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jung came from behind to defeat Zheng Zhiwei and Huang Ya-chung 2-1 (9-21 21-13 21-16) in the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the 2024 Asian Championships at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center in China on Wednesday. Their opponents in the final will be world No. 3 Peng Yanze-Huang Dongping (CHN). Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yoo-jung will be the first South Korean pair to win the mixed doubles gold medal at the event in 11 years, since Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Hana in 2013. They have a 1-3 record against Feng Yanze and Huang Dongping.
Seo and Chae snapped a six-match losing streak and improved to 3-15 all-time against Zheng Zhiwei and Huang Yaocheng. After losing nine straight matches to the pair, they won their first World Championships final in August last year, and then went on to win the China Open quarterfinals to reach the top of the standings before losing six straight. For Seo and Chae, Zheng and Huang were a mountain to climb if they were to win a medal in Paris, but with just over 100 days to go before the start of the Games, their confidence was restored.
After easily dropping game one without reaching the 10-point mark, the duo rallied from an 8-8 deficit in game two with two consecutive four-point runs to take a 16-10 lead, then dropped only two points in the rest of the game to win the match. In game three, they were unable to continue their momentum from game two and went into the interval trailing 7-11. However, Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yu Jung’s concentration shone through. Starting with a jumping smash from Zheng Zhiwei that Chae Yoo-jung accurately caught and returned to the opponent’s empty space, Hwang Ya-chung’s error and Seo Seung-jae’s sharp attacking points combined to score six points in a row to quickly turn the game around at 13-11. Panicked, Zheng Zhiwei and Huang Yaocheng made more mistakes. Seo Seung Jae-Chae Yoo Jung could have easily eradicated the deficit if not for two service errors, but they ran and chased and tied the score three times. However, like a tiger on its back, Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yu Jung continued to push their opponents. At 15-15, Seo capitalized on a successful attack by Seung Jae Seo and scored three consecutive points to open up an 18-15 gap, and after conceding a point, Seung Jae Seo again took advantage of the opponent’s mistake to seal the victory.
The world No. 2 women’s doubles pair of Baek Hana (MG Saemae Village Bank) and Lee Sohee (Incheon International Airport) advanced to the final of the tournament for the second 토토 consecutive year with a 2-1 (12-21 21-18 21-12) victory over No. 4 Liu Shengsu-Tan Ning (CHN) in the women’s doubles semifinals earlier in the day. After falling behind 2-6 in the first game, Baek Hana and Lee Sohee were unable to close the gap and lost the momentum, but they battled back to take the next two games to level the match and then did the opposite of what they did in the first game in the third to book their ticket to the final. Against Ryu Sung Soo-Taning, the duo holds a 3-1 record.
Baek Hana-Yi Sohee will play for gold against No. 7 Zhang Xian-Zheng Yu, who reached the final with a 2-0 (21-14 21-16) victory over World No. 1 Chen Qingcheng-Zhai Fan (CHN). BAEK Hana and LEE Sohee lead their all-time head-to-head matchup 2-1. If Baek Hana and Lee So-hee reach the podium, they will follow in the footsteps of Lee Kyung-won (the current national team coach) and Lee Hyo-jung, who won the 2005 event.
