An Se Young (File photo by By De-Shao Liu)
Top ranked An Se-young of South Korea once again showed her mastery over her Chinese rival Wang Zhiyi at the Frenh Open badminton championships at the Glaz Arena, Chemin du Bois de la Justice.
The 24-year-old Se-young took 42 minutes to subdue second seed Zhiyi 21-13, 21-7 to lift her back-to-back French Open women’s singles crown.
It was also the sixth time this year that the Korean lass had gotten the better of Zhiyi in a final.
Se-young, who beat Zhiyi for the Danish Open earlier this month, also beat the arch-rival for the Malaysia Open, All England Open, Indonesia Open and Japan Open this season.
The match between the duo were close only during the early stages of the opening game. Leading 12-11, she managed to break down Zhiyi’s persistent defense twice with strong smashes at the net and quickly pulled away.
Se-young scored five consecutive points at the start of the second game, and slowly whittled down a tiring and bewildered Zhiyi. She raced to a comfortable 13-2 lead before romping away with an easy win.
Meanwhile, at the Indonesian Masters II, Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara was the sole non-Indonesian champion in the USD 110,000 event.
Nozomi was in a class of her own as she defeated India’s Devika Sihag 21-11, 21-9 in the women’s singles final.
FINAL RESULTS
FRENCH OPEN
Men’s singles: Anders Antonsen (Den) bt Christo Popov (Fra) 21-12, 21-19
Men’s doubles: Kim Won Ho-Seo Seung Jae (Kor) bt Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Shohibul Fikri (Ina) 10-21, 21-13, 21-12
Women’s singles: An Se Young (Kor) bt Wang Zhi Yi (Chn) 21-13, 21-7
Women’s doubles: Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto (Jpn) Li Yi Jing-Luo Xu Min (Chn)
Mixed doubles: Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping (Chn) bt Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supisara Paewsampran (Tha) 27-25, 21-12
INDONESIA MASTERS II
Men’s singles: Moh. Zaki Ubaidillah (Ina) bt Dong Tian Yao 21-11, 21-8
Men’s doubles: Raymond Indra-Nikolaus Joaquin (Ina) bt Choi Sol Gyu-Goh V Shem (Kor-Mas) 21-18, 17-21, 24-22
Women’s singles: Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) bt Devika Sihag (Ind) 21-11, 21-9
Women’s doubles: Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti (Ina) bt : Isyana Syahira Meida-Rinjani Kwinnara Nastine (Ina) 21-11, 21-17
Mixed doubles: Marwan Faza-Aisyah Salsabila Putri Pranata (Ina) bt Jimmy Wong-Lai Pei Jing (Mas) 16-21,21-19, 21-3
