2014 China open: Japanese teenage sensation Akane Yamaguchi reaches final

Akane Yamaguchi

In the second women's semi-final Akane Yamaguchi of Japan ousted 5th seed Bae Yeon Ju of Korea to set up a summit clash with Saina Nehwal of India. En route her journey to the final, she displayed consistent spells of brilliance. In the second round she shocked no 2 seed Wang Shixian of China by beating her in straight games 21-10, 25-23.

The stunning win gave her enough confidence to rout Bae Yeon Ju of Korea in the semi-final. This win of Akane Yamaguchi is a good news for world badminton and certainly a great news for Japan who are looking for another world class women player after Mitani Minatsu and Sayaka Takahashi.

The match started with Bae Yeon Ju as favorite to win, but it was Yamaguchi who started leading all the way till 21-10 after being 0-1 down. From 14-10 ahead Akane took 7 straight points to seal the game 21-10. It was an unusually below par display by Bae in recent past.

Second set started similarly. Bae started with an early lead but Yamaguchi started to excert her dominance and remained in lead till 19-18. Being 14-17 down Bae showed some sign of resistance and fought back till 17-all. In the end, at 23-all Yamaguchi took 2 straight points to seal the game and the match in spectacular fashion.

Bae Yeon Ju had beaten no less that two good Chinese players including higher ranked Wang Yihan on her way to the semis. But the way she lost the semi-final is less to her credit than to Akane's brilliance. Sunday will be an interesting final.