Five players – four from Australia and one from New Zealand – gave themselves a shot at a double as the Victor Oceania Championships 2017 entered its final day.
Australia’s Gronya Somerville, Tiffany Ho, Sawan Serasinghe and Setyana Mapasa and New Zealand’s Niccolo Tagle won their semi-finals in a session where all the top seeds prevailed.
Tiffany Ho surprised second seed Joy Lai in the Women’s Singles semi-finals 21-17 21-14 before teaming up with her opponent for the Women’s Doubles – Ho and Lai earned a hard-fought 19-21 21-19 21-17 victory over second seeds Vicki Copeland/Anona Pak (New Zealand). Ho/Lai take on compatriots Gronya Somerville/Setyana Mapasa in the final; the top seeds had it easy over New Zealand’s Susannah Leydon-Davis/Danielle Tahuri 21-15 21-17. Ho’s opponent in the Women’s Singles final will be Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen, 21-18 21-12 winner over compatriot Jennifer Tam.
Somerville and Mapasa (featured image) also entered the title round of the Mixed Doubles. Somerville and Joel Findlay defeated Mitchell Wheller/Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen 21-12 21-19; top seeds Mapasa and Sawan Serasinghe were just as dominant over New Zealand’s Kevin Dennerly-Minturn/Danielle Tahuri 21-8 21-11.
Tagle, the only non-Australian in contention for a double, beat Jacob Schueler 21-16 21-15 in his Men’s Singles semi-final before teaming up with Kevin Dennerly-Minturn to defeat second seeds Simon Wing Hang Leung/Mitchell Wheller 16-21 21-15 21-18.
Tagle will take on top seed Pit Seng Low (Australia) in the Men’s Singles final. Low needed just 30 minutes to get past Daniel Fan in an all-Australian semi-final.
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