Did You Know? – French Open: Finals

Finals day at the YONEX French Open 2019 promises to be a historic one.

Here are five things you need to know ahead of an action-packed day.

  1. In-form Indian youngsters Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty will be out to snap a 0-6 record against world No.1’s Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

If successful, it will be the biggest win of their booming careers after their Super 500 triumph at the Thailand Open in early August.

They have shown this week how dangerous they can be. Last night they put on the afterburners in sweeping aside Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe 21-11 25-23.

  1. Incredibly, Spain’s Carolina Marin is aiming for her second title since her return from injury in September. Her list of opponents she has defeated in that time include:
  • Nozomi Okuhara (twice)
  • Tai Tzu Ying (twice)
  • Ratchanok Intanon
  • An Se Young
  • Cai Yan Yan
  • He Bing Jiao
  • Sayaka Takahashi
  • Cheung Ngan Yi
  • Pornpawee Chochuwong
  • Beiwen Zhang

Her opponent today, 17-year-old An Se Young, is in search of her first Super 750 title on the HSBC BWF World Tour.

An’s sole victory to date is her triumph at the New Zealand Open in May. Yesterday, she was too strong for Akane Yamaguchi.

  1. In women’s doubles, we have the second all-Korean final of 2019. Four-time title winners this year, Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong take on Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan in a repeat of the Korea Open final from a few weeks ago.

Fifth seeds Lee and Shin claimed their first career victory over Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota last night.

  1. China’s Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist Chen Long is out to defend his French Open crown from last year. Chen has a 7-0 record against his opponent today, Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie.

Christie made the understatement of the year following his semifinal win over Viktor Axelsen. “Our head-to-head is not good. He leads 7-0 but I’ll try my best.”

Can Chen Long go back-to-back?
  1. Remarkably, it’s only the fourth tournament this year where Japan has no representatives in any of the five finals. The other times this has happened …
    • Thailand Masters
    • India Open
    • Chinese Taipei Open

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