Badminton

Malaysia’s Peng Soon-Liu Ying go down fighting in dramatic All England final

1 min read March 12, 2017

Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying’s hopes of making history at the All England Championship were handed a cruel blow after they succumbed to a defeat against China’s Lu Kai-Huang Yaqiong in the mixed doubles final today.

The Olympic silver medalists came into the match as underdogs, having lost all of their previous encounters with the Chinese pair. But their hopes of helping Malaysia win its first ever mixed doubles title in Birmingham looked bright in the first set, as they performed admirably to clinch a 21-18 win.

They carried that momentum into the second set and dominated it for large parts, until Lu-Huang pulled off a stunning comeback to eventually beat Peng Soon-Liu Ying 21-19 and drag the game into a rubber set.

Here’s where it began to crumble for Peng Soon-Liu Ying. Their Chinese counterparts raced into a 6-0 lead within the first few minutes and went on to comfortably dominate the set. They eventually sealed a 21-15 win to wrap up the match and effectively win their maiden All England title.

But it goes without saying that the match was absolutely outstanding in terms of quality. Both pairs battled through some majestic rallies and the tension was relatively evident throughout the match, especially in the second and third set.

This sentiment was largely echoed on Twitter as well, with Danish shuttler HK Vittinghus expressing his excitement midway through the match.

More to come…

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