Jakarta: Taiwanese badminton ace Chou Tien-chen advanced to the men’s singles finals of the US 1.45 million Indonesian Open after upsetting second-seeded Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand on Saturday.

According to Focus Taiwan, with his 59-minute 21-16, 23-21 victory, world No. 7 Chou, who is seeded sixth in Jakarta, became the oldest player ever to reach a men’s singles finals at a BWF Super 1000 event at the age of 35 years and 150 days.

The first game seemed poised to be tight as the two players were even at 11-11, but Chou then ran off six of the next seven points for a 17-12 lead and his Thai opponent could get no closer than two points the rest of the way.

The second game was tight throughout after Kunlavut, who rose to world No. 1 just this past week, jumped out to a 7-2 lead. Chou managed to secure game points at 20-19 and 21-20 before taking the game 23-21.

Chou had lost his last two encounters against Kunlavut at the French Open in October 2023 and the Indonesian Masters in January 2024, but main
tained his poise on Saturday to overcome the player known as Thailand’s silent assassin.

Chou, who won the men’s singles title at the Indonesia Open in 2019, will face either top seed Shi Yuqi of China or third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in Sunday’s finals.

No other Taiwanese players made it to the quarterfinals of any of the five events being contested in Jakarta.