Peter Gade was on fire and made light work of Sony Dwi Kuncoro to set up a rematch against Lee Chong Wei on Sunday as the latter easily trounced Taufik Hidayat.There could be five different nations as winners on Sunday night.“It will be a totally different match tomorrow (Sunday). Of course I will take whatever I can from the match against Lee Chong Wei in the group match, but I will give it my best shot for sure.” Peter Gade couldn’t be more pleased about his performance on Saturday in the semi-finals of the Yonex-Sunrise BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2008.Not expecting so much going into this event because of his tough schedule, the Dane managed to pull a quick and efficient victory over Sony Dwi Kuncoro. The Indonesian was just not on top of his game and was a mere opponent to Gade’s fierce attacks.The score lines shows how big of a margin there was between the two great shuttlers, Gade took it 21/10 – 21/10. “This is the ideal way of going into the final for me. I had expected to play a long and tough match, but today, I played really well. I stayed in control of the net and didn’t allow him to play his game. He was a bit unsecure and on my side, my attacking game was very good today,” added Gade.“I will now try to do the same tomorrow. I have no expectations but if it is Lee Chong Wei, it will be fantastic to play against him in the final. I’m really looking forward to this match tomorrow,” said Gade.Gade was right about one thing : his opponent of Sunday’s final was, as he expected, Lee Chong Wei. In the last match of the day, the Malaysian beat Taufik Hidayat in a disappointing semi-final. The Likas Complex was packed to see Chong Wei take over the former Olympic champion, yet the latter gave a performance way below par.Very aggressive, he committed one mistake after the other, obviously not controlling the shuttle the way he wanted. And as it happens sometimes, the motivation was just gone as the points were adding to each other. In 25 minutes, Lee had won 21/5 – 21/10 and will meet Gade again, two days after beating the Dane in the group matches.Oddly enough, the final of the Super Series will be the rematch of the first match of group A as Wang Chen and Zhou Mi will meet in the final again. This time, the outcome might be a little tighter than the 21/15 – 21/12 success from Wang Chen on Thursday.Wang Chen who is 32 just like Peter Gade, ended the fairy tale of Saina Nehwal in three games, but it didn’t take much for the Indian to have come on top, especially after she clinched the first game 21/14. The Hong Kong shuttler was frustrated, often asking for a break to the umpire, changing shuttles and trying to find a better ways to counter Saina’s attacks.But one thing could have made her get over the loss of the first game : “I still have in mind that day where she beat me in the Olympics. I haven’t gotten over it yet,” admitted Wang. Motivated by this humiliation in the back of her head, the Shanghai born shuttler changed tactics in the second game, playing a more steady game, longer rallies and making her opponent make the mistakes.It paid off as she finally scooped the match 15/21 – 21/14 – 21/16. “I was still tired from my match yesterday which finished late but I am still happy with myself having reached this far,” said Nehwal, who will no doubt be enlightening the world circuit for many years to come.Wang will be joined by Zhou Mi, her teammate after the latter beat Tine Rasmussen. Zhou was very patient in her game and pushed the Dane to attack more and more and commit mistakes. Too many of Tine’s shuttles went long on the back line and Zhou had then gotten too big of a margin to be caught up.“I seem to have a lot of fans here. They have been fantastic and have given me a lot of support. I will go out and reward them with a more entertaining badminton in the final,” said Zhou after her 21/13 – 21/16 victory. No matter what, the title will go to Hong Kong.Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung avenged their Olympic poor performance by beating the Olympic champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in one of the best matches of the day. The Indonesians were good and efficient, but the Koreans were just playing superbly, with an amazing Yong Dae, putting a lot of pressure at the net while Jung was hammering from the back.It took three games for the All England Champions to beat the Indonesians who can have regrets as they were not very far from edging their opponents – a win in the tight first game might have made a huge difference, but the Indonesians finally went down 20/22 – 21/15 – 16/21.Sunday’s final should, however, be a fitting finale when Lee Young Dae and Jung Jae Sung take on local heroes Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong as the Malaysians beat their compatriots Mohd Zakry Latif/Mohd Fairuzizuan in straight but tough games 22/20 – 21/14.In the women’s doubles, Vita Marissa and Lilyana Natsir beat their compatriots Jo Novita and Greysia Polii in straight games 21/19 – 21/17 and will meet Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui from Malaysia. “It’s never easy to play our training partners as we know each other so well that it’s not easy to play deceptive shots. I’m just glad that we were able to win in straight games as the match could have gone either way. Now, we have a winning record against our opponent, 2/1 and we don’t fear them even if we know it will be a tough match tomorrow,” said Vita Marissa.Denmark’s Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Thomas Laybourn entered the final in style, beating Thailand’s Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thungthongkam in straight games, in a match which saw some errors but also a lot of variety thanks to the contrasting styles.“Europeans have always been good in the mixed doubles and we have a different approach of the game compared to Asians. We try to use more variation than just flat play. We were able to do that well today,“ said Laybourn.The Danes, very much on top of their game in the first won it 21/17, but the second game was more of a fight, with Sudket losing his usual nonchalant smile on some occasions to try to get back to one game all. And in spite of the lead towards the end of the game by the Thais, it was finally the Danes who scored the last point of the game – and the match, before kneeling together and celebrating.Laybourn’s wish came true few hours later when Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir beat England’s Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg in a tight game, 23/21 – 21/17.Sunday’s finals will feature some of the finest shuttlers with 5 nations competing for 5 titles. Malaysia could scoop 3 titles, while Indonesia and Denmark could go home with a maximum of two titles. Hong Kong is already assured of having one Gold in the only final between compatriots.
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