Germany’s Rick Hellmann and Thomas Wandschneider saved two match points against South Korea’s Jeong Jaegun/Yu Sooyoung to secure their place in the men’s doubles WH1-WH2 World Championships final in Tokyo.

A bout of end-game nerves couldn’t stop the German pair from prevailing 21-13 18-21 24-22 after 80 minutes on the court.

Only a day earlier did Wandschneider, soon to be 59, spent the same amount of time on court in his men’s singles quarterfinal loss.

The German pair now take on Noor Azwan Noorlan/Muhammad Ikhwan Ramli for gold, with the Malaysians outpointing French pair Thomas Jakobs/David Toupe 21-18 18-21 21-19.

All eyes though will be on home favourite Daiki Kajiwara, with the 20-year-old taking on legend Kim Jung Jun in a rematch of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games final. Jung Jun was tested by Hong Kong China’s Chan Ho Yuen Daniel for three games eventually taking the match 16-21 21-17 21-15.

“I thought Jung Jun’s chops, especially to kill the points were superb. I had already saved about 80 per cent of the shots but every shot touched the line or fell on the line,” Chan said.

“Every single point was in the corner and touched the line. He’s really good with that and I wish him well against Daiki Kajiwara in the final tomorrow.”

In the women’s singles WH1 draw, Sarina Satomi and Cynthia Mathez progressed as expected, recording comfortable wins overs Kwon Hyunah and Henriett Koosz respectively.

Peru’s Pilar Jauregui and Turkey’s Emine Seckin reversed the form book proving too strong for their opponents. Jauregui took out home favourite Yuma Yamazaki 21-17 21-11 while Seckin defeated Switzerland’s top seed Ilaria Renggli 21-11 21-9.

The pair had double the reason to celebrate as both also won through to their mixed and women’s doubles finals.

WHAT OTHERS SAID

On her Ilaria Renggli’s debut performance at the BWF Para Badminton World Championships and defeat to Emine Seckin today.

“The experience will make a huge difference to Ilaria’s growth in Para badminton. The match was closer than the result shows, but Emine’s experience made all the difference. For her first World Championships, it’s amazing how Ilaria player throughout the event.” – Swiss coach Karin Suter-Erath.

→ Results (Day 5)

→ Order of Play (Day 6)