Chinese Shuttlers Fail Miserably in Their Own Country, Indonesia Win Two Titles
Fuzhou, 21 Safar 1438/21 November 2016 (MINA) – For the first time in China Open’s 30-years history, Chinese shuttlers had failed to capture a single title at the China Open finals that concluded on Sunday.
P. V Sindhu who became star athlete of India after being the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal, was crowned at the women’s singles final after she fought back from dropping a set to beat local shuttler Sun Yu 21-11, 17-21, 21-11 in 69 minutes to win her first ever career Superseries title.
Sindhu levelled the head-to-head record against Sun Yu to 3-3 after Sunday’s match, badmintonPlanet.com reported.
“I really think I should win a Superseries title after Rio Olympics. I thought it would take me some time to come back, that’s why I’ve been working very hard,” said Sindhu.
“Sun and I are both tall and offensive players. I’ve to try several strategies to beat Sun,” added Sindhu.
“I was not patient enough especially when I started to run out of energy in the third set. Congratulations to Sindhu as she has become more aggressive and confident in her game,” said Sun Yu.
In women’s doubles final, South Korea’s No. 6 seeds Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee successfully wrapped up their first ever World Superseries title by beating home favorite unseeded Huang Dongping and Li Yinhui of China on Sunday.
Chang/Lee were struggling and lost the first set 13-21. The Korean pair managed to regain their rhythms to win the second set 21-14. In the decider, the South Korean combo rallied from 7-10 to eventually clinched the third set 21-17 in a 90 minutes encounter.
Rio Olympic champion and No. 2 seeds Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir staged a strong fightback in the decider to deny Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui of China 21-13, 22-24, 21-16 for the mixed doubles title.
“We were being too passive from the get go. We tried to be more proactive in the second set but the Indonesian pair was able to increase more pressure on us in the decider. This was only our second tournament together, and we still have a lot of room to improve,” said Zhang Nan after the match.
In the men’s doubles final, Indonesian pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo outlasted No. 4 seeds Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark 21-18, 22-20 in 49 minutes for the men’s doubles crown.
China’s chief coach Li Yongbo told reporters before the finals that it would be fine for his young Chinese shuttlers to experience some difficulties in the BWF games.
However, he did not show up in the news conference held after all the matches have finished.
Earlier that day, Jan Jorgensen of Denmark defeated Rio Olympic gold medalist Chen Long from China to win the men’s singles title. (T/R07/R01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
