Singapore Open Badminton: Golden oldie Boonsak eyes treble

Defending champion Boonsak Ponsana booked his place in the Singapore Open final on Saturday as China’s Li Xuerui and Wang Yihan set up a repeat of last year’s women’s Olympic title match.

Thai veteran and fifth seed Boonsak, the top men’s seed remaining in a field decimated by withdrawals, needed just 34 minutes to beat Takuma Ueda 21-8, 21-15, finishing off the Japanese with seven straight points.

Boonsak, 31, who is chasing his third title in Singapore after also winning the tournament in 2007, will meet unseeded Tommy Sugiarto in the final after the Indonesian came from a set down to beat Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh in 74 minutes.

In the women’s singles, top seed and Olympic champion Li will have to repeat her victory over Wang last year in London if she is to claim her second title in a week, after winning in Indonesia last Sunday.

The world number one took just 36 minutes to beat her lanky Chinese team-mate Sun Yu, who had eliminated defending champion Juliane Schenk of Germany in the second round.

Wang downed Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri 20-22, 21-17, 21-18 to set up the final against Li.

In the men’s doubles, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan ousted Chinese Olympic champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng to set up a final against Ko Sung-Hyun and Lee Yong-Dae of South Korea.

Men’s superstars Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei are both skipping the Superseries event and 11 players pulled out on the eve of the tournament, which falls just a few weeks before the world championships in August.