Dechapol Puavaranukroh (‘Bas’) and Sapsiree Taerattanachai (‘Popor’) entered an incredible ninth final in 2021 and gave themselves a chance at improving on their silver medal finish from the last edition of the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships.
The Thai pair started slowly against Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet, but found their speed as the match progressed, and finished the match comfortably, 15-21 21-7 21-10.
Apart from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where they lost in the quarterfinals, Puavaranukroh and Taerattanachai have made every other final, winning all but one of them – the YONEX Denmark Open.
They swept the three-event Asian Leg in January and the three-event Bali Leg in November-December, and in between won the Hylo Open.
“We try to learn from every match,” said Taerattanachai. “We don’t pressure ourselves. I’m very happy but we still have to be focussed for tomorrow because we want to change the colour of our medal.
“We were a bit slow to start with today, and we were forced to defend, but after that we pushed the pace. We tried to win the attack first.”
“Tomorrow is the last match of this year, so we want to put it all out there,” said Puavaranukroh.
Puavaranukroh/Taerattanachai take on Japan’s Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino who have a 4-2 record over them, but the Thais won their last two contests during the Bali leg.