lee Chong downs Tago in a thrilling final as Intanon wins women's showdown
Experience is indeed a funny feature. If it turned out to be enough for lee Chong Wei to contain Kenichi Tago to win the men's singles title, Ratchanok Intanon's youth was way ahead of Juliane Schenk's years of practice.
Wei just about managed to dictate the match towards the end to win the Yonex Sunrise India Open 21-15, 18-21, 21-17. Earlier, 18-year-old Ratchanok didn't have to struggle much to win the women's trophy as she beat Juliane in straight games, 22-20, 21-14, at Siri Fort Sports Complex here on Sunday.
If the first game kept you in good stead to bet your money on 30-year-old world No 1 Wei, the following games just didn't give you any hint on which way the title would go. The 23-year-old world No 9 and sixth-seeded Japanese, proving a bit too strong at his forehand smashes, made Wei try every shot he knew and mastered to keep himself in with a chance for a second title. The Malaysian top seed was playing his third consecutive India Open final, having won the 2011 edition.
The one hour three minutes of the battle started with Wei comfortably holding on to his lead in the game, making most of the points off the junior opponent's enforced errors. The second proved to be a complete revelation as Tago stepped on the gas right from the start. He hit the shuttle so hard sometimes that Wei didn't even get time to try and make a return. The other moments stood out for his acute placement. So much so, that Tago had taken an 11-4 lead at the time of break.
Wei got himself back into the game when he took five straight points to cut down the lead to three points at 9-13 in Tago's favour. The duo then kept taking points off each other at regular intervals, but Tago's energy and powerful shots saw him take the match into the third game.
Wei and Tago were neck and neck in the decider almost till the very end. Both making minimum possible errors, in the end it was Wei's better reading of the game, thanks to his experience, that sealed the match in his favour. He didn't let Tago trouble him with his jump-and-smash routine as he made the Japanese play more at net or backhand.
In the women's singles, as it turned out, it was practically and statistically the net that separated Ratchanok and Juliane. During the 45-minute encounter, if it hadn't been the number of shots that the German hit onto the net, she might have taken home her first India Open silverware. Hitting it out seemed to be Juliane's second preference of the day.
After entering the break of the first game with an 11-8 lead, the 30-year-old second-seeded world No 4 let her Thai opponent take seven points in a row, hitting most of them out. It was only when the third seed and world No 6 Ratchanok was serving for the game at 20-13 that Juliane gave a glimpse of her power and took seven points herself. However, the next two points saw her renew her enmity with the net to give away the game 22-20.
The following game was all about superior fitness of Ratchanok. Juliane tried to claw her way back but she just couldn't get the better of the net and her opponent's swiftness (in that order). Though the German kept it quite competitive till the break at 9-11 to Ratchanok, she stepped into her erring shoes once again to collect just five more points as the Thai finished it 21-14.
Meanwhile, top seed combine of Tontowi Ahmad and liliyana Natsir of Indonesia beat Korean pair of Sung Hyun Ko and Ha Na Kim 21-16, 21-13 to take the mixed doubles trophy for the third consecutive time.
Hyun Ko then teamed up with Yong Dae lee in a bid to lift the men's doubles trophy too. The duo however could not beat China's eighth-seeded pair of Xiaolong liu and Zihan Qiu and went down 20-22, 18-21.
Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna, the fourth-seeded Japanese pair and 2011 winners, took the better of second-seeded Danish team of Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl 12-21, 23-21, 21-18.