Taiwanese falter in two finals at the Macau Open

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) Taiwanese shuttlers Hsieh Pei-shan (謝沛珊) and Hung En-tzu (洪恩慈) lost a nail-biter in the final of the women's doubles at the Macau Open on Sunday while Lin Hsiang-ti (林湘緹) was outlasted in the women's singles final.

Hsieh and Hung, who began competing as a team in May 2024 and are currently ranked 54th in the world, lost to the Chinese duo of Li Wenmei (李汶妹) and Zhang Shuxian (張殊賢), ranked 91st in the world, 25-23, 18-21, 22-20 in 78 minutes.

In the first game, Hsieh and Hung established leads of 12-6 and 16-12, but their opponents rallied to go ahead 20-19.

The Taiwanese saved three game points but then could not capitalize on one of their own, and the Chinese duo won the last two points to go up 1-0 in the best-two-of-three final.

Hsieh and Hung won the second game by winning six of the last nine points and jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the third game, seemingly poised for victory.

The Chinese duo rebounded with seven straight points, but the Taiwanese kept their poise and eventually earned a match point at 20-19, only to squander the opportunity on an unforced error.

A second error by Hsieh and Hung gave Li and Zhang the momentum they needed to close out the match.

In an interview with CNA, Wu Ti-jung (吳玓蓉), the coach of the Taiwanese team in Macau, praised her players' performance.

"They maintained their poise and met pre-match expectations, but they lacked a bit of experience in the crucial moments. That can be improved by playing more tournaments," Wu said.

Lin, ranked 49th in the world, had never won a Super 300 event -- a fourth-tier event on the badminton world tour where players just outside the top 15 usually compete to rack up ranking points.

She put herself in position to win against sixth seed Gao Fangjie of China (高昉潔) by winning the first game 23-21 after saving a game point, but lost the final two games 21-9, 21-11 to have her title dreams thwarted.

Lin seemed to lose steam in the final two games of the unusually long 81-minute match, especially in the third game when she trailed by only a point, 11-10, before losing 10 of the last 11 points.