Celebrating 10 years since his first continental championships, Nathan Tangs impressive form carried him into the final of the VICTOR Oceania Championships 2022.
Having upset top seed Abhinav Manota in the morning, he was able to maintain the intensity and aggression against the skilled and deceptive Ying Xiang Lin, 21-18 23-21.
“I started off really slow, but once I started to get going my energy levels shot up and I was able to play my game. We played two weeks ago at the Australian National Championships and had a very similar score which gave me some confidence heading into the match. As my coach taught me, I had to go out there and own the court, take the initiative and stay on the pedal,” said Tang.
The longest matches of the tournament came in the men’s singles as the Oceania junior champions from 2017 and 2019, Oscar Guo and Edward Lau (both New Zealand), faced off in the other semifinal. Over 62 minutes of spectacular badminton, Lau secured his opportunity to reclaim the title which he won in 2019.
Chen, Louisa Ma in Women’s Singles Final
Louisa Ma of Australia.
The women’s singles became the only discipline to see the top two seeds qualify for the final for a second time running as Wendy Chen and Louisa Ma celebrated victories this evening. The challenge was harder for Ma, who had to recover from a game down to close in on a determined Tiffany Ho.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian and six-time reigning champion Wendy Chen eased past her opponent to seize an opportunity to extend her run.
Quarterfinals: Top seed Manota Falls to Tang
Top seed Abhinav Manota was a high-profile casualty in the quarterfinals earlier on the day.
Manota fell to 32-year-old opponent Nathan Tang, who showed no signs of slowing down despite losing a close second game, demonstrating expertise and precision in a match which fell just four minutes shy of the hour.
Tang made the semifinal beating Manota 21-16 21-23 21-16.
“I feel ecstatic. I’m one of the oldest players so to make the semifinals of the Oceania Championships again. I got my revenge because I was in better form today,” said Tang, who’d lost to Manota at this event in 2020. “The mindset in 2020 was to make the semis, I made it, but then I let my foot off the gas. This time, I’m going to be more selfish and not think too much about my teammates this afternoon. I live locally so I will head home, rest, get my favourite food and think about the gameplan”, said Tang.
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