BADMINTON/Taiwanese shuttlers reach men's doubles final at French Open

Taipei, March 10 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton players Lee Jhe-huei (李哲輝) and Yang Po-hsuan (楊博軒) on Sunday defeated Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi to advance to the men's doubles final at the YONEX French Open 2024.

The Taiwanese duo, ranked 16th in the world, scored a 21-18, 23-21 semifinal upset over the world no. 6 pairing to reach the final of the French Open for the first time together.

Lee and Yang previously beat Hoki and Kobayashi at the 2022 Hylo Open and at the 2023 German Open but lost to the Japanese duo at the 2023 Japan Masters, their most recent encounter before Sunday.

During the Sunday semifinals, the two pairs were at even standing 4-3 in favor of Lee and Yang early in the first game.

The Taiwanese duo then widened the gap to a six-point lead after gaining momentum to land the score at 11-5.

While Hoki and Kobayashi narrowed the difference later on, Lee and Yang continued to keep a two-point lead before closing out the game 21-18.

The first half of the second game was dominated mostly by Hoki and Kobayashi, who left the Taiwanese shuttlers to play catch up when the Japanese led the game 10-16.

As the game got to 13-19 with Lee and Yang trailing behind, the Taiwan duo then made a dramatic comeback to take in seven points before tying the second game 20-20.

The extended game saw the Taiwanese men win a ticket to the Super 750 tournament when they concluded the game 23-21.

Lee and Yang, who won the German Open earlier this month, will take on India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who are ranked number one in the world.

With their tickets into the final, the Taiwanese shuttlers stand to rake in at least 9,350 points to help them advance into the Paris Olympics later this year, possibly even ahead of 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟).

The annual French Open was moved from October to March this year to accommodate the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in July.