World champions Chen Long and Carolina Marin were both beaten in the semi-finals on an extraordinary day when in which the season’s form book was torn up, and not one defending champion made it through to the finals of the Dubai World Superseries Finals.
Chen, the defending champion who has won seven Superseries tournaments this year, lost to Viktor Axelsen, the world number six from Denmark, with the Chinese player rarely showing his best form.
Briefly Chen advanced to 17-15 but his movement was not by his great standards exceptional, and he also made numerous mistakes, eventually losing 21-12, 21-17 and admitting himself that he had not played well.
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Marin, who has five major titles from her finest year, lost a little less surprisingly by 21-11, 21-12 to Nozomi Okuhara. It was the second time in 24 hours she had been beaten in straight games by the Japanese player, having lost to her in the group stages, and it was also her third defeat in the tournament.
The slow conditions made it difficult for the Spaniard to impose her attack-minded methods against a superbly mobile opponent who consistently returned the shuttle into safe places.
“Yesterday I was very lucky to qualify,” Marin said, referring to the defeat of former world number one Saina Nehwal which allowed to progress on a countback of games.
“It’s difficult for me to control the shuttle in these conditions and my opponent played better than me. But it has been my best year and I just want to go home to recover.”
Marin fought to the end but Chen by contrast was oddly subdued and error-prone. Axelsen did well to tie up the world’s best player up at the net quite a lot of the time, thus negating his tall opponent’s long reach in mid-court and steep overhead counter-attacks.
“I didn’t play so well,” Chen admitted. “I know that my opponent played better than I did. But I am happy about my performance for most of the year.” He already had an eye on his preparation for the 2016 Olympics, he half-admitted.
Chen was surely not as happy as Axelsen after the biggest win of his career, who was he said “overwhelmed”.
Later he added: “My game was to stay a relaxed as possible, to enjoy it and to play with variation – and so to try to smile.”
Axelsen will not have a final that he may have hoped for against his compatriot Jan Jorgensen, the world number two, who lost 21-19, 21-18 to Kento Momota, the 2014 Thomas Cup hero from Japan who has since risen to five in the world.
Momota trailed 7-11 in the second game, but even then appeared more dangerous with his good movement and sudden ambushing jump smashes.
Despite this he claimed he had often been apprehensive about the outcome. He did not seem so thrilled at the prospect of Sunday’s final either, even though the biggest title of his career beckons. “I don’t have a feeling of happiness,” he said. “Maybe that’s because I am a bit scared.”
A Japanese double triumph is very possible. Okuhara plays the Women’s Singles final against Wang Yihan of China who overcame Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand with unexpected comfort, by 21-12, 21-12 in a match between former world champions.
“I didn’t expect this to happen,” said Wang, who has not won any title of significance during 2015. She did not sound as if she expected much to happen on Sunday either. “The last time I played Okuhara, in the French Open, I lost,” she added. “So I don’t know if I can win the title.”
The only other titleholders surviving on the fourth day were Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong, and they were eliminated 21-17, 22-24, 21-15 by Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, the world champions from Indonesia.
The penultimate exchange was a contender for the rally of the tournament, lasting 50 shots, at the end of which both Ahsan and Yoo were on the floor.
There is also a possibility of history being made by Chris and Gabby Adcock, the husband and wife pair who could be the first players from England to win a World Superseries Finals title.
The Adcocks reached the final of the mixed doubles with a 21-17, 22-20 win over Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto of Indonesia, after being behind for much of the first game and then facing defeat when their four-point second game lead evaporated into a 16-17 deficit.
On Sunday they face Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na, the world’s sixth ranked pair from Korea.
Despite China’s Men’s Singles disappointment the sport’s leading nation can still win three of the five titles, with finalists in both the women’s doubles (Luo Ying and Luo Yu) and the men’s doubles (Chai Biao and Hong Wei) as well as the women’s singles.
The Luos will meet Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, while last year’s runners-up Chai Biao and Hong Wei will play Setiawan and Ahsan.
