New Delhi: Danish veteran Peter Gade carved out an impressive 21-15 21-19 victory over South Korea's Sung Hwan Park to storm into the final of the inaugural Indian Open Super Series here on Saturday.
Gade, seeded third, was in control of the match for most of the 45 minutes and he was backed by a sizeable number of fans, who turned up at the Siri Fort Stadium despite the Indian campaign ending on Friday.
In the women's singles, Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand defeated fourth-seeded Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong 21-13, 21-8 and she will take on third-seeded Youn Joo Bae, who scored a thrilling 23-21, 15-21, 21-12 victory over Japanese Sayaka Sato in the hour-long other semi-final.
Gade dictated terms in the first game with his deft touch. He pushed Park to the flanks to easily finish the rallies. Park struggled to get a foothold after Gade surged ahead 5-3.
Showing supple hands at the net, Gade built on his lead and notched up five points straight from 13-11 to race through with the game.
Park, who defeated second-seeded Indonesian Taufiq Hidayat in the quarterfinals on Friday, came back strongly in the second game, taking a 12-6 lead. But Gade nosed ahead by taking six points on a clip and the pressure was back on the young Korean.
Gade stubbornly held onto the lead to close out the match.
The experienced Gade will meet the winner of the match between World No1. Malaysian Lee Chong Wei and Hong Kong's Yun Hu, seeded eighth.
"I am getting better and better in the tournament. I have been making the semifinals and quarterfinals regularly and it feels good to be in the final here. The last I played in a final was in 2010 Korea Open," said the 34-year-old, who saved three match points in his opening round against Japanese Kazushi Yamada.
"I played a clever and smart game. I set the pace in the match. I was expecting to comeback in the second game because of the change of ends and I was on the difficult side. He was controlling the game but then I fought back well."
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