ALL ENGLAND 2010 SF – Tago spans 44-year gap for Japan

The pint-sized Japanese shuttler seemed dead and buried after an opening set defeat to the German Open winner Bao Chunlai, but Tago (pictured) himself knew that in the two previous rounds he had also come back from a set down to beat Joachim Persson and Chen Jin so defeat was never in his mind.

Tago even had match point against him in the second set and everyone expected the Chinese player to close out the match and advance to the final. But this is the All England and it is never over ‘until the fat lady sings’ and Tago, backed by the roars of the huge Birmingham crowd, took 3 points in a row to take the match to a deciding set.

The second set loss obviously unsettled Bao Chunlai (pictured) as Tago immediately raced to a 10-2 lead in the third, which was a lead he was never to surrender. No matter how the Chinese player tried he could not claw his way back and Tago kept Bao at arm’s-length for the remainder of the set with Tago eventually winning 21-18 and in doing so first falling to his knees then spread horizontal on the ground in sheer disbelief at what he had achieved. In fact, Tago spent so long on his back on the floor in utter disbelief that his opponent had time to shake both the hand of the umpire and line judge and gather his belongings before Tago eventually brought himself to his feet.

“It is hard to believe this is happening to me. It’s the 100th All England and I am now so happy to be in the final.  This has been such a hard week with every match a tough one but I believe in my game and I happy that I can do this for Japan,” said a delighted Tago after his semi-final victory.

Not since 1966 has Japan had a shuttler in the men’s singles final at the All England and for the first time since Gade won the All England crown by beating Taufik Hidayat in 1999 there will be no Chinese participation in the men’s singles final.  Tago will go to the final hoping to go one better than his mother did in the women’s doubles final in 1980 where she was beaten by one of the last English pairs to win that title.