Doubles, Women

There were some surprises in the group stages when the-seeded pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida (JPN) lost to Kim So-Yeong and Gong Hui-Yong (KOR) by a score of 24-22, 26-24, and Baek Ha-Na and Lee So-Hui (KOR) were beaten by the Danish pair of Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen by 21-18, 9-21, 21-14. The number three seeds Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning (CHN) also had a tough contest against the Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva, eventually winning 19-21, 21-10, 21-16. However, all the aforementioned pairs advanced to the quarter-finals, along with the Chinese number one seeds and world ranked number one women’s doubles pair, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, with Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan (MAS) completing the quarter-final line-up.

The quarter-finals were largely one sided contests, all matches finishing with scores of 2-0. The contest between the two-seeded pairs Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning (CHN) and Baek Ha-Na and Lee So-Hui (KOR) finished 21-9, 21-13, with the remaining semi-finalists being Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan (CHN), Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida (JPN), and the unseeded Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan (MAS).

In the semi-finals, both Chinese pairs won and advanced to the final. However, Chen and Jai were taken to three sets by unseeded Tan and Muralitharan, eventually winning by 21-12, 18-21, 21-15. The other semi-final was more straight forward, as the other Chinese pair of Liu and Tan defeated Matsuyama and Shida by 21-16, 21-19.

In the match for the bronze medal, Matsuyama and Shida defeated Tan and Muralitharan comfortably by 21-11, 21-11. In the match for the gold medal, it was the Chinese pair of Chen and Jai who defeated their compatriots Liu and Tan 22-20, 21-15, in a match lasting just short of an hour.