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By Sportswriter Liu Yang
FUZHOU, China, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shuttler Li Yinhui, 19, fought into finals of both women's doubles and mixed doubles at China Open here on Saturday, vying for her first BWF Superseries title in both categories on Sunday.
Li Yinhui and Huang Dongping, world ranking 58th, kept strong offense and knocked off the third-seeded women's pair Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen from Denmark, 21-16, 21-18.
With Zhang Nan, Li brushed aside top-seeded Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na, world ranking the first duo from South Korea, 21-19, 10-21, 21-15. Li will face the difficulty in playing two finals on Sunday afternoon.
"I'm very glad that I fought into both finals. I never win any title of these two in Superseries. Me and my partners, we're doing well in the process. It is very challenging to play two matches in such a short time. But I'm young and trying to learn how to use my energy," said Li.
The 21-year-old Huang and 19-year-old Li made obvious progress in recent tournaments. They stopped at first round in Denmark but stepped into semifinal in France. In China Open, the Chinese duo upset Rio Olympic Champion Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi in the second round and eliminated the Bulgaria twin pair Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva on Friday.
Juhl comment on her opponents Huang/Li, "their level is higher than in previous matches and a bit higher than us (with Pedersen). They have some good skills in the front. Normally it's our game in the front court, but we have to adapt to their game and it took too long today."
In the women's singles, China's Sun Yu eliminated the fifth-seeded Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei, 21-8, 23-21, who beat top seeded Carolina Marin on Friday. Here comes the chance for Sun to grab her first Premier title. Her final opponent on Sunday is Pusarla V. Sindhu from India, who edged No. 6 seed Sung Ji Hyun from South Korea.
Sun told Xinhua the victory gave her much confident in tomorrow's game. "I made some mistakes in the second set and I chased up later in today's game, which proves that I'm offensive. I played many tournaments recently, maybe it is a bit tired but I learnt a lot and tried to make some change in the future."
"Now many veterans have retired from national team, which is natural alteration, and I want to take more responsibility to pick up the torch. That is my target but saying is always easier, I need to win more games," said Sun.
In the men's singles, Axelsen failed to take revenge on Rio's champion Chen Long in their 10th encounters, and lost 9 of them. Chen will battle with Danish veteran Jan O Jorgensen in the final on Sunday. Axelsen seemed not confident that he had sent his luggage to the airport before the game started.
Axelsen told Xinhua he planed to fly back to Denmark if he lost and he would reschedule the airplane if he won. The 22-year-old shuttler smiled, "I should have won the first set but I got a few unlucky shots and missed a few easy kills. That is not why I lost; it could have helped in the right direction. Maybe he lacked of training after Rio, but he was still playing great."
"Chen did not offer me many opportunities in backcourt. He was playing consistently during the whole game and controlled the drift better than I did. I'm not physically back to my best and I'll keep training on fitness and skill."
In the men's doubles, neither top-seeded Chai Biao/Hong Wei nor Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan strived to the finals. Another Chinese women's duo, the forth-seeded Luo Ying/Luo Yu lost to Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee from South Korea, 14-21, 22-22.
