Gan’s Japanese guns hope to blow away Korean obstacle for first title

KUALA LUMPUR: Japan’s Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino have a South Korean puzzle to solve in their bid to capture a historic mixed doubles title in the Malaysian Open.

World No. 2 Watanabe-Higashino, surprisingly, have never beaten world No. 7 Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun in their past three meetings and are out to end their losing run in the title showdown today to become the first Japanese pair to be crowned champions in the tourney.

The duo, who are coached by Malaysian Jeremy Gan, booked their spot in the final with a hard-fought 21-15, 12-21, 21-15 victory over China’s world No. 5 Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

It was sweet revenge for Watanabe-Higashino after losing to Zhenbang-Yaxin in their only encounter so far in the 2023 Korean Open.

The pair have now reached their second consecutive final after finishing runners-up to another Chinese pair and world No. 1 Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong last year.

Watanabe is hoping for a different outcome this time.

“We are happy to reach the final again but we are not thinking about last year,” said Watanabe.

“We want a fresh start this year. We played against a very good pair today (yesterday) but we didn’t give up until the end and that was the key to our win.

“In the final, we will face a pair that we have never beaten before and we want to end our losing streak.”

Won-ho-Na-eun had an easier time in their last four match against surprise semi-finalists Terry Hee-Jessica Tan of Singapore, winning 21-16, 21-16 in 41 minutes.

The Koreans had earlier threw the competition wide open after sensationally taking down Siwei-Yaqiong in the quarter-finals.