By Milly McEvoy in Birmingham
Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida’s partnership has needed some polishing but now they are ready to shine.
The Japanese women’s doubles pair have been there or thereabouts for the past couple of years but on their return to the YONEX All England final for a second year running, there is a different mood.
It came after they finally got the better of Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the semi-finals, after five straight defeats.
“We have been losing to them for a long time!” Shida said. “We’ve been wanting to beat them as soon as possible and it finally came true today, so I’m really glad that we won finally.
“We’ve had lots of experiences here. Now that we are in the final tomorrow, we still don’t know what conditions it may bring and until we are on the court we don’t know what it’s going to be like.
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“I think it is important that we keep the determination that we are going to win and not to give up to get the victory.
“We would like to give a unique performance to everyone and to do our best tomorrow.”
While the pair have ended their hoodoo against Tan and Liu, they need to go one step further to end their run of defeats in finals.
The pair have not topped the podium since 2023, losing four straight finals including to Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee in last year’s All England showpiece.
On Sunday, they will face Yuki Fukushima, the player they beat for their last tournament victory.
However, fellow Japanese shuttler Fukushima is thriving in a partnership with Mayu Matsumoto, both of whom are former winners here.
Matsuyama added: “We weren’t even able to envisage that we would be able to win against them and we’ve been struggling for all of these years.
“I still don’t even know how we won actually! We would like to keep it up and keep ourselves growing and we’d like to take this opportunity to know that we are able to win and grow together.”
While Fukushima and Matsumoto have All England-winning knowhow, so do Shida and Matsuyama, with the pair triumphing in 2022.
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They will be able to call on that experience to help them on Sunday and inspiration may come from other places, with Matsuyama only having to look at the silvery design on her fingernails.
She said: “I get my nails done in my hometown of Kumamoto in Japan in a salon. My hope is to shine like my nails!”
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