New Delhi. Thailand’s Kunlavut Witidsarn and Korea’s Un Seong became men’s and women’s singles champions respectively after defeating two-time world champions in their respective categories at the India Open badminton tournament here on Sunday. Kunlavut beat two-time world champion and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles final, while youngster Un Siang came from behind to beat two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi in the women’s singles final.
Kunlavut defeated the reigning Olympic champion of Denmark 22-20, 10-21, 21-12 in 64 minutes to claim his maiden Super 750 tournament title. Meanwhile, 20-year-old An Siang ended her losing streak against Yamaguchi to beat the world number one Japanese 15-21 21-16 21-12 in a 72-minute women’s singles final. In this way she also became the first Korean player to win the India Open. Last week also a similar three game final was held at Malaysia Open but she lost to Yamaguchi in this match.
The men’s doubles title went to the pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang. It was the pair’s second World Tour title, having won the same trophy at the Japan Open last year. The world number 11 pair defeated third seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 14-21 21-19 21-18 in the men’s doubles singles final. The other two doubles matches could not be held as two Chinese players had to withdraw due to illness. Wang Yi Liu (playing mixed doubles with Huang Dong Ping) and Chen Qing Chen (playing with Jia Yi Fin in the women’s doubles final) had to withdraw from their matches due to diarrhea.
In this way, the Japanese pair of Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won the mixed doubles title. At the same time, the women’s doubles title was also named after the Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida. After the match, An Siang said that I knew this match was going to be long. So I had already made up my mind. With this win, she managed to reduce the margin of victory against the Japanese player to 6-10. An Siang was called up to the national team in 2017 when she was 15 years old.
She was part of the bronze medal-winning mixed team at the World Junior Championships and also played a key role in Korea’s bronze medal win at the Uber Cup in 2018. With 11 World Tour titles to her credit and a World Championship bronze medal, she is fast becoming one of Korea’s biggest hopes at the Olympics.
