Chloe Birch & Lauren Smith’s bid for the SaarLorLux Open women’s doubles crown ended in defeat at the final hurdle.
The English duo were beaten in straight games by Chinese third seeds Liu Xuan Xuan & Xia Yu Ting 21-16 21-13 in the showpiece game at the BWF World Tour Super 100 event.
That victory was one of four on the day for China, who were only denied a clean sweep in the men’s singles by Indian competitor Lakshya Sen.
Birch & Smith may have been seeded one spot higher than their final opposition but came up against a partnership entering on the back of two good performances at Super 750 events.
Liu & Xia now sit nine places above the English pair at No21 in the world rankings, having risen seven spots this week as a result of a run to the quarter-finals of the Yonex French Open, and a last-16 defeat at the Danish Open.
Back in Saarbrucken, the Chinese opened strongly by opening up a 6-1 advantage from the off, never allowing Birch & Smith to level before taking the opening game.
The second stanza was closer as the pairs were never more than two points apart heading into the mid-game interval.
But from there Liu & Xia took control, putting together a run of four points and then three points twice to finish strongly and take the title.
Despite defeat the run to the final was an important uptick in form for Birch & Smith on the back of four consecutive first-round defeats – albeit three of them taking place at high echelon events on the World Tour.
It was also an improvement on last year’s SaarLorLux run, when they reached the semi-finals.
Elsewhere on the day, Guo Xin Wa & Zhang Shu Xian overcame compatriots Ren Xiang Yu & Zhou Chao Min 21-18 21-19 in the mixed doubles final, while Li Yun eased past Dane Line Christophersen 21-12 21-13 for the women’s singles crown.
But ultimate Chinese dominance was denied when eighth seed Sen came from a game behind to best Weng Hong Yang 17-21 21-18 21-16.
The day ended with World Junior Championships silver medalists Di Zi Jian & Wang Chang – responsible for ousting Olympic bronze winners Marcus Ellis & Chris Langridge in the last eight – overcoming Denmark’s Mathias Bay-Smidt & Lasse Molhede 21-17 21-15.
The Shuttle 
[…] It was double disappointment for Smith, who also fell in the women’s doubles first round with Chloe Birch, the pair unable to build on last week’s run to the SaarLorLux Open final. […]
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