Jwala, Ashwini Win Women Doubles’ Title at Canada GP, Lee Chong Wei Takes Men’s Crown

Indian women’s doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnnappa culminated their successful run in the Canada Open Grand Prix Badminton tournament with a straight games victory in the title match against the Dutch duo of Eefge Muskens and Selena Piek on Sunday evening. Jwala/Ashwini had won the bronze medal in 2011 World Championship and the silver in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. It was the first victory for the India doubles players in a BWF Grand Prix event, since they started playing together once again after the 2012 London Olympics. In the men’s singles Malaysia’s former world no.1 Lee Chong Wei won his second title after his victory in New York’s US Open last week. Continuing his triumphant return after the eight-month doping ban, Lee proved too strong for his opponent from Hong Kong, Angus Ng Ka Long in the title match. Since the famous Malaysian took to the badminton courts last month, Lee Chong Wei has won all 17 matches that he has played so far. Though the US and Calgary events had lower BWF ratings, Lee would still collect some points to boost his chances for the upcoming world championships in August. Lee also wants as much exposure as possible for his attempts to qualify for 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Indian women’s doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have won the championship match at the 2015 Canada Open BWF Grand Prix beating Netherlands’ Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek. Jwala/Ashwini had a great run in the tournament that ended with their first victory in a BWF event. The Indian duo met with some resistance from the Dutch pair in the first game that was contested closely. Both pairs exchanged leads until the end and it became a matter of who could hold their nerves for a longer time. Jwala/Ashwini won the crucial points and edged out the Dutch combo 21-19 in the end. In the second game, the Indian pair raced away to a 5-0 lead and kept building up on the early advantage. At 15-6, Jwala/Ashwini had the match in their pockets but the Netherlands pair fought back to win 9 straight points to draw level at 15-15. The Indians composed themselves at this stage and played with an upper hand to clinch the game. The end result was 21-19, 21-16 in favor of the Indians.

Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia added to his last week’s US Open victory after he won the men’s singles title at the Canada Open. Lee, who had found tougher opponents in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches, didn’t have any problem in the final match against Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long. Lee yielded some extra points in the first game, which he won 21-17 but his opponent couldn’t trouble him in the second game as he raced away to a 21-17, 21-13 win in just 35 minutes.

In other matches, Michelle Li of Canada took the women’s singles title with a hard-fought victory over Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu of Japan 21-17, 25-23; men’s doubles event was won by Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China in an all-Chinese final with Junhui/Yuchen defeating compatriots Kaixiang Huang/Sijie Wang 17-21, 21-12, 21-18 and the mixed doubles title was taken by Hong Kong’s pair of Lee Chun Hei Reginald/Chau Hoi Wah, who defeated Indonesia’s Andrei Adistia/Vita Marissa 21-16, 21-18 in just 26 minutes.