by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Safely through to the quarter-final round the day earlier, Orawan Paranang and Suthasini Sawettabut, the no.2 seeds, booked their place in the final without ever being extended the full five games distance.

They accounted for Korea’s Lee Zion and Yoon Hyobin, the no.6 seeds (12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 13-11), prior to recording a semi-final success in opposition to the French combination of Laura Gasnier and Audrey Zarif, the no.3 seeds (11-13, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6).

“I started to play point by point because we made a lot of errors during the first and second games; then we started to talk to each other more to prepare a strategy for our third and fourth games.” Suthasini Sawettabut

“I felt a lot of pressure because this was our chance to get into the final. We were down 3-9 in the second game and came back to win. After that I felt confident that we could win. Finally we did!“ Orawan Paranang

A place in the final reserved; the Japanese partnership of Satsuki Odo and Saki Shibata awaits.

No doubt familiar with their opponents, a fact that must be considered, in the round of the last eight pairs, they upset the order of merit by beating colleagues, Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato, the top seeds and winners one year ago (12-10, 12-10, 6-11, 5-11, 11-6). Increasingly confident, they secured their place in the final courtesy of success in opposition to Chinese qualifiers, Yu Yifan and Yuan Yuan (11-7, 15-13, 11-8).

The programme for the finals commences at 4.00 pm (local time) on Sunday 20th May, the Women’s Doubles title decider in the third on the itinerary.