The two Chinese pairings LIU Sheng Shu and TAN Ning as well as JIA Yi Fan and ZHANG Shu Xian provided a spectacle in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel to kick off the finals at this year's Yonex Swiss Open. Ranked number one in the world and seeded number one in the tournament, the slightly younger LIU/TAN were the favourites to win. In January, they beat JIA/ZHANG in three sets in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Open.
Today, JIA/ZHANG got off to a slightly better start in the first set and were able to open up a lead of up to six points. At 14:9, the match was tense again. Although the favourites caught up, they were unable to take the lead. The first round was mainly characterised by long rallies and usually ended with a mistake. Would it also come down to a third set, where it would depend on who had the longer breath? In any case, the second set was similar to the first, but with the favoured LIU/TAN in the better position, who benefited from a few mistakes by their opponents early on and never relinquished the lead.
In the deciding set, the more experienced JIA/ZHANG were a little more active and took the first four points in a row before the world number ones got back into the action. After a seemingly never-ending rally at 8:5, the favourites were able to catch up again. After a short breather, JIA/ZHANG recovered and continued to be more aggressive. LIU/TAN shone with their spectacular defence and fought their way back to 15:15. However, JIA/ZHANG were able to hold their ground and won the defensive but entertaining match 21:19, 14:21 and 21:17 with a net roller at the end.
