BADMINTON/Taiwan's Lin reaches finals of Macau Open

Taipei, Sept. 28 (CNA) Taiwanese shuttler Lin Hsiang-ti (林湘緹) advanced to the finals of the women's singles at the 2024 Macau Open on Saturday following a victory over a Japanese opponent who had been playing well in recent tournaments.

Ranked 49th in the world, Lin upset Tomoka Miyazaki in 63 minutes at the Macao East Asian Games Dome for her first win against the Japanese player in their second encounter.

Miyazaki had finished second in last week's Super 1000 Victor China Open and reached the semifinals of the Super 500 Hong Kong Open the week before, and appeared poised to continue her hot streak when she won the first game against Lin 21-17.

But Lin maintained a steady lead throughout the second game and held off a comeback attempt in the third game, when the Japanese narrowed a 17-12 deficit to 17-16, to gain a place in the women's singles finals.

She will face off against China's Gao Fangjie (高昉潔), who toppled Taiwan's Chiu Pin-chian (邱品蒨) in Saturday's other semifinal match.

Chiu lost to Gao for the second time in her career without a win, falling 21-14, 13-21, 21-14.

The Taiwanese women's doubles team of Hsieh Pei-shan (謝沛珊) and Hung En-tzu (洪恩慈) also reached the finals of their event Saturday, toppling the third-seeded team from India of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela 21-17, 16-21, 21-10.

They will face the Chinese duo of Li Wenmei(李汶妹) and Zhang Shuxian (張殊賢) in Sunday's final.