Malaysians dominant at Dutch Open

Malaysians proved their dominance at the Dutch Open Badminton Championships on Saturday with their entries into the finals for three out of five events

Muhd Hafiz B. Hashim, top seed for the championships, defeated Japanese player Sho Sakaki 2-0 to seal a place at Sunday's final for men's singles.

Hashim is to fight Sakaki's teammate Shoji Sato, second seed of the championships, who downed defending champion Danish Anders Boesen 15-6 and 15-5.

Women's doubles stars Wong Pei Tty-Chin Eei Hui from Malaysia defeated Japanese pair Aki Akao-Tomomi Matsuta with 2-0. However, they will face a tough fight on Sunday against host pair Lotte Bruil and Athens Olympic champion Mia Audina.

Malaysian favorite pair Tan Fook Choong-Wan Wah Lee overcame onSaturday US pair Tony Gunawan-Halim Haryanto with 2-1 at men's doubles. Their rivals on Sunday's final will be Japanese favoritesTadashi Ohtsuka-Keita Masuda.

On Sunday, the two events Malaysian players would not set foot in are women's singles and mixed doubles.

Dutch top seed Yao Jie is to compete for the top title against her former teammate Xu Huaiwen of Germany, who is the third seed of this championships.

As for mixed doubles, German pair Ingo Kindervater-Kathrin Piotrowski are to face Polish pair Robert Mateusiak-Nadiezda Kostiuczyk.

Source: Xinhua