Malaysia Upset Men's Favourites India To Mark Double Asian Games Team Gold Bid In Japan

Celebrating the sole upset on semi-finals day at the Asian Games Team event today in Japan, Malaysia beat men's favourites and defending champions India to claim spots in both finals at the Nagoya Kinjo-Futo Arena in Nagoya.

Opening the contest was a replay of the Asian Games Men's Singles final, as Malaysia's No.1 string Eain Yow Ng took on Abhay Singh. For India's No.1, the result remained the same, as Ng claimed the opening tie in straight games.

Moving into the No.2 string match, there was another rematch on Court One, as India's Veer Chotrani was looking to avenge his singles defeat against Malaysia's Sanjay Jeeva - which he was able to do, levelling the tie with a disciplined 11-4, 11-8, 11-5 victory.

With a place in tomorrow's final on the line, the tie would be decided in a battle of endurance between Malaysia's Ameeshenraj Chandaran and India's Velavan Senthilkumar.

With Senthilkumar claiming the first game 12-10 after a brutal 22 minutes, his Malaysian opponent bounced back strongly to win the next two games 11-6, 11-8.

With momentum on his side, Chandaran continued this form into the fourth game and confirmed Malaysia's place in the final for the first time since 2018, winning 11-9.

Hero of the day Chandaran said later: "I'm really happy with the result today. Losing the first game, I was happy with how I was able to get myself back into the match.

"Going into tomorrow's match, we will have to go in with the same mindset of taking one point at a time, and we won't be putting any pressure on ourselves."

Ng continued: "We are really proud of the whole performance today. We didn't make the finals last time, so we are proud that we have been able to take that step forward and we are ready to go all the way."

Malaysia will face Pakistan in the gold medal play-off. The No.2 seeds progressed to the final after coming from behind to defeat Hong Kong 2/1.

Despite eventually winning the contest, it was Hong Kong who made the stronger start with Alex Lau defeating Pakistan's No.1 Noor Zaman 3/1 to put his team ahead.

Pakistan responded quickly in the second, with Muhammad Ashab Irfan beating Henry Leung in straight games to level the tie.

With a place in the final on the line, Pakistan's Nasir Iqbal delivered in a tense battle, defeating Hong Kong's Matthew Lai 10-12, 11-3, 11-9, 14-12 to seal Pakistan's place in the final.

"We are feeling incredibly happy right now, especially as that was a really intense battle," said Ashab Irfan.

"I felt a lot of pressure going into the second match 1/0 down, but getting through the contest and experiencing the nerves today will help us get stronger for tomorrow, as we are not only playing for ourselves but for the country as well.

"So, overall we are happy to have got to the final today, but we don't want to stop there, as we are going for gold."

In the women's event, Hong Kong reached back-to-back women's team finals at the Asian Games following a dramatic 2/1 victory over India.

A repeat of the 2023 Asian Games semi-final saw Hong Kong look to add another gold medal to their collection following their success in this year's mixed doubles event.

The match that stole the show came in the opening tie, as Sin Yuk Chan staged an incredible five-game comeback to defeat India's Anahat Singh and give her country the lead.

The opening two games followed a similar pattern, with Singh racing into early leads before Chan fought back, only for the India No.1 to close out both games 11-9 and 11-8.

But with Singh leading 2/0, the momentum shifted as World No.25 Chan fought her way back into the match, taking the third 11-6 before winning a dramatic fourth 13-11 to force a decider.

The fifth was another intense battle, with the pair pushing each other to a tie-break before Chan held her nerve to win 12-10 and complete the comeback.

Hong Kong's Ka Yi Lee then took on India's No.2 string Tanvi Khanna, winning the opener before Khanna launched a comeback of her own to win 4-11, 13-11, 11-9, 13-11 and force a decider.

With everything on the line, Tomato Ho delivered for Hong Kong defeating Joshna Chinappa in straight games to seal their place in the final.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's women's final, Hong Kong's Tomato Ho said: "We are feeling super happy today, and for me personally to win the deciding match it meant a lot to overcome that pressure.

"So, for us as a team to get over the line was really good, and it was a great team performance."

After her impressive comeback victory over higher-ranked Singh, Chan continued: "I knew that I could get back into the match today, even though the score was 2/0, they were close matches.

"I knew if I focused that I could do it, I kept reminding myself that every point won is a win during the match, and it worked out well. I think I played some good squash today, I just hope for myself that I can carry this into tomorrow's match."

Hong Kong will now face defending champions Malaysia in tomorrow's final after beating home favourites Japan.

In the headline match of the tie, Malaysia's World No.5 Sivasangari Subramaniam took on Japan's World No.6 Satomi Watanabe in an intense five-game battle.

Watanabe claimed the opener 11-5, but the Malaysian No.1 responded strongly, winning the second 11-7. However, Japan's No.1 string refused to back down, claiming the third 11-5, before Subramaniam levelled the tie once again with an 11-6 fourth-game victory.

With the match heading into a decider, Subramaniam raised her level to pull clear, powering to an 11-3 fifth-game victory and putting Malaysia in control of the tie.

With Subramaniam's opening victory moving Malaysia one match closer to the final, it was Aira Azman who closed out the contest, winning 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 over Japan's Akari Midorikawa.

Malaysia's Aira Azman said: "We feel so relieved that we have made it into the finals once again.

"We started strong in the opening match, and that gave me a lot of confidence going into my match 1/0 up. As a team we have been able to play our best this week, and we are looking forward to tomorrow."