Lin Chun-yi
Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yi claimed his biggest ever career title while the indomitable South Korean An Se-young claimed her second title of the year on a trot at the Indian Open badminton championships in New Delhi.
Chun-yi upstaged third seeded Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-10, 21-8 to claim the men’s singles title at the BWF Super 750 event. Chun-yi’s only other final appearance at a Super 750 event before this was at the China Masters last year.
He was beaten by China’s Weng Hongyang in that final, but he was not to be denied this time. Ironically he had beaten Jonatan in the last 16 in China and repeated the feat in the final in New Delhi.
It looked like a walk in the park for Korean superstar Se-young as she clinched a second title for the season, and sixth consecutive Tour women’s singles win.
The world number one dominated World No. 2 Zhiyi of China 21-13, 21-11 in a match that lasted 43-minutes. It was a breeze for Se-young, who was given a much more difficult time by Zhiyi in the Malaysian Open title last week.
The24-year-old Se-young has now stretched her head-to-head record against Zhiyi to 18-4. More noteworthy is that she has not lost in any of their last 10 encounters.
In the first game, Se-young cross-court attacks that made it difficult for Zhiyi to counter. She was up 7-1 before string of excellent net-play saw the Chinese ace chasing down the deficit to 6-9. However, Zhiyi was not able to sustain the pressure, allowing Se-young to romp ahead, leading 12-6 and 15-9 before taking the first game 21-13.
The second game was much closer in the initial stages, with An Se-young edging ahead 6-5.
But the Korean extended the lead to 11-7 and sent Zhiyi scrambling to all courner of her courtside, surging ahead 17-9 before wrapping up the game 21-11 to clinch the title.
FINAL RESULTS
Men’s Singles: Lin Chun-yi (Tpe) bt Jonatan Christie (Ina) 21-10, 21-18
Men’s Doubles: Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang (Chn) bt Hiroki Midorikawa-Kyohei Yamashita (Jpn) 17-21, 25-23, 21-16
Women’s Singles: An Se-young (Kor) bt Wang Zhiyi (Chn) 21-13, 21-11
Women’s Doubles: Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning (Chn) bt Yuki Fukushima (Jpn) 21-11, 21-18
Mixed Doubles: Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewsampran (Tha) bt Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje (Den) 19-21, 25-23, 21-18
