Maeda-Suetsuna take back-to-back championships

Japan’s Miyuki Maeda-Satoko Suetsuna defeated team mates Shizuka Matsuo-Mami Naito 21-18, 21-13 in 76 minutes to win the YONEX SUNRISE Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold in Alor Star on Sunday.

Maeda-Suetsuna, who also won the YONEX SUNRISE India Open Superseries last week, had to battle hard against their opponents, whom they had faced twice previously.

Although they had lost to Matsuo-Naito in this year’s German Open Grand Prix quarter-finals, Maeda-Suetsuna remain undefeated against their team mates in finals, as they had also beaten them in the 2010 Denmark Superseries title decider.

It was a real battle royale with Matsuo-Naito showing great fighting spirit to comeback from an 11-3 deficit in the opening game before losing 21-18. Both pairs were engaged in long rallies which had the crowd at the Sultan Abdul Halim Stadium on their edge of their seats.

The second game followed the pattern of the first with Maeda-Suetsuna the early aggressors, charging to a 11-5 lead at the mid-game interval.

Once again Matsuo-Naito threatened a fight back but Maeda-Suetsuna had learnt their lessons from the opening game and put the brakes on to finish the game 21-13.

Maeda, who looked thoroughly exhausted, commented: “It was hard. Very, very tired. It is always the same between Japanese pairs. We know each other so well. I’m happy to have won the back-to-back titles.”