China advances to men's, women's team badminton final at Asiad

HANGZHOU, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's men's and women's badminton teams both defeated their Japanese counterparts with the same scoreline of 3-1 to reach the team finals at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Saturday.

Chen Yufei won her opener by defeating Aya Ohori 21-19, 12-21, 21-15 in the women's team semifinals, before world No. 1 pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan lost to Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama in a 97-minute thriller.

Chen believed that "wanting to win too much" affected their mentality, which led to a lack of stability in handling key points.

"It's true that the team event is not the same as the singles, but our mentality is still not very good," Chen admitted.

World champions Chen and Jia claimed the hard-fought first game 21-19, but their opponents bounced back to win the second and third sets 21-9, 21-17.

He Bingjiao brought China out of the scare as she edged past Natsuki Nidaira in straight games 21-12, 21-14, before Zheng Yu and Zhang Shuxian sealed the final spot for the host nation.

The result sees China avenge their defeat to Japan in the Jakarta 2018 Asiad final.

China will next face South Korea, who knocked out Thailand 3-1.

Also on Saturday, China's men's team came back to beat Japan 3-1, and will take on India in the final.

Shi Yuqi, China's No. 1 men's singles player at two consecutive Asiads, was beaten by Kenta Nishimoto 10-21, 21-16, 21-14.

Shi, who has never won a match in Hangzhou, admitted that he has a "mental load" as he gets older.

Young duo Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang nosed out Yugo Kobayashi and Takuro Hoki 23-21, 25-23, followed by Li Shifeng's victory against Kanta Tsuneyama.

Although China's second doubles pair Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi lost their opener 21-15 to Akira Koga and Taichi Saito, they withstood the pressure to win the following two games and secure a final berth.

The team finals will take place on Sunday.