China’s World no.1 Chen Long justified his tournament seeding by defeating local favorite and world no.8 Chou Tien Chen in the men’s singles final of the Chinese-Taipei Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Sunday. Down one game, Chen Long demonstrated his superior class in the next two games to win his fourth title of the season after All England, Malaysian Open and Australian Open. The victory should bolster the confidence of the 26-year old Chen Long ahead of the upcoming World Championships in Jakarta. China won two other titles on Sunday. In the all-Chinese women’s singles match, no.6 seeded Wang Yihan crushed her fourth seeded compatriot Li Xuerui in two easy games while men’s doubles title was also claimed by China. The Chinese no.5 seeded pair of Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan outclassed Indonesia’s Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo. Indonesia took the women’s doubles title while Korea was destined to claim the mixed doubles since both finalists were Koreans.
The 2015 Chinese-Taipei Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament has come to an end. In the keenly watched men’s singles final, local favorite Chou Tien Chen challenged the reigning world champion Chen Long of China. The entire stadium rooted for Chou as he found his rhythm and built on his strong start to take the first game 21-15. But Chen Long is not the world’s no.1 player for nothing. The Chinese defended Chou’s early forays in the second game and after 5-4, won six straight points to get a command in the game and didn’t allow too many liberties to the Taiwanese. After winning the second game at 21-9, Chen Long exercised total control in the third game and raced to 11-3 in no time. Afterwards, the outcome was inevitable and Chen Long finished the match with the score-line of 15-21, 21-9, 21-6.
In the all-Chinese women’s singles final, Li Xuerui was somewhat unsettled against her sixth seeded compatriot Wang Yihan. In one of the quickest finals in recent memory, Wang Yihan beat Li Xuerui in just 28 minutes in two identical games. Li was completely off-color as Wang thrashed her 21-10, 21-9 to clinch the women’s singles trophy.
China won their third title of the day, when the fifth seeded Chinese men’s doubles pair of Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan crushed Indonesian youngsters Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-13, 21-9. Haifeng/Nan dominated the match and didn’t allow the Indonesians any liberty in the course of another quick match of the day, which was over in 23 minutes.
The women’s doubles final was won by Indonesia’s 2014 Asian Games champions Nitya Krishinda Maheshwari and Greysia Polii. Maheshwari/Polii played against the Chinese twins Luo Ying and Luo Yu and prevented China from taking the fourth title of the day as they won 21-17, 21-17. The mixed doubles crowned was already in Korea’s bag as both final pairs belonged to Korea. It was only a question of which pair would win. Finally, Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na defeated Shin Baek Cheol/ Chae Yoo Jung 21-16, 21-18 in 31 minutes to win the crown.
