PARIS, Oct. 28-- Chinese shuttlers experienced a lackluster day in BWF World Superseries French Open semi-finals here on Saturday, as only mixed doubles top seeds Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen managed to come through a grueling match for a final berth. Women's doubles world champions Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan failed to defend their title as they were overshadowed by Indonesian duo of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu 21-5, 21-10 in just 40 minutes. Polii and Rahayu set up an encounter with South Korea's Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan, who lifted up the Denmark Open trophy last weekend. "We played a poor start, and could not build up our momentum. We were restrained by our opponents," admitted Jia, who partnered Chen for their first BWF Superseries title one year ago in the same venue. From then on, they won at BWF Superseries Finals and World Championships, and were currently positioned atop world rankings. "We could feel the challenges from opponents in every match," added Jia. Chen then regrouped herself to feature on mixed doubles court with Zheng. The current world No. 1 faced a rough battle against Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark. In the opening game, the Chinese duo wasted four game points for 20-all, before making a timely adjustment and winning the next two points. Christiansen and Pedersen built an 11-6 lead midway through the second game. Zheng and Chen failed to chip away the deficit, only to concede the game at 21-17. They held their nerves in the decider to secure their positions in Sunday's final at 21-15. |