Saarbrucken: Malaysia’s men’s doubles No. 1 seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik fought hard, but could not prevent themselves slipping to a three-sets loss to No. 3 seeds Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England 21-23, 21-18, 21-19 in the SaarLorLux Open final on Sunday.
Chia/Soh failed to close out the game when they were leading 18-10, 20-16 in the first set, ultimately losing to the English pair 21-23.
Both pairs were neck and neck in the second, but the Malaysian pair managed to stay collected to force a decider.
Momentum was clearly on Ellis/Langridge’s side in the decider as they were putting a lot of pressure on Chia/Soh with some high quality badminton to claim the SaarLorLux Open men’s doubles title.
This was Chia/Soh’s second runners-up finish of the season as they were beaten by Maneepong Jongjit/Nanthakarn Yordphaisong of Thailand in the final of 2018 Vietnam International Challenge in March.
India’s Subhankar Dey who defeated two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in the second round, created the truest of dark horse story when his aggressive shot making was on full display as he eked out a 21-11, 21-14 to outlast No. 5 seed Rajiv Ouseph of England for the men’s singles title.
In women’s doubles, last week’s French Open runners-up and No. 1 seeds Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria had to dig deep to beat Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istarani/Rizki Amelia Pradipta of Indonesia 22-20, 15-21, 21-19 in 72 minutes.
Meanwhile, No. 3 seed Cai Yanyan got pass several brutal endurance test and dispatching compatriot and No. 4 Chen Xiaoxin 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 in the women’s singles final.
England’s Marcus Ellis claimed his second title of the day late Sunday after he and Lauren Smith came from a set down to beat No. 5 seeds Lu Kai/Chen Lu of China 19-21, 21-18, 21-10 to claim the mixed doubles crown.
