Two women's doubles pairings kicked off today's semi-final day in the already packed St. Jakobshalle in Basel. China's Yi Fan JIA and Shu Xian ZHANG, seeded fifth in the tournament, challenged No. 3 Febriana Dwipuji KUSUMA and Amallia Cahaya PRATIWI from Indonesia. However, the favourites seemed a little slower on their feet today and struggled to keep up with the Chinese players early on. At 16:11, JIA/ZHANG seized their chance and ended the first set without conceding another point to their opponents.
It was a similar story at the start of the second set. JIA/ZHANG took the first five points before KUSUMA/PRATIWI came to serve. Until the break at 11 points, the Indonesians won just 2 points. After that, there was some more tension. The Chinese made one or two mistakes of their own. However, they did not allow their opponents to score more than 6 points in the chase to catch up. JIA/ZHANG won 21:11 and 21:12 in front of an enthusiastic crowd after 44 minutes.
