Indonesian badminton ace Sony Dwi Kuncoro upset world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei 21-17, 21-11 to win the Japan Open yesterday, avenging his quarter-final defeat to the Malaysian at the Beijing Olympics.
“I feel happy to show that I am no less capable than Chong Wei,” Dwi Kuncoro said after winning. He lost no games on his way to winning his second Super Series title of the year.
“It hasn’t been easy since I lost in Beijing. I was really devastated but came back with three weeks of training, hoping to beat Chong Wei again,” said Dwi Kuncoro.
Lee, the top seed, said he had been exhausted after weeks of silver-medal celebration and training after losing to China’s world champion Lin Dan in Beijing.
“I was so tired that I was outpaced and outdone by Sony’s rhythm. I made one mistake after another,” said the 25-year-old. “I want to rest up and readjust myself before deciding when I will play next.”
In the women’s final, China’s up-and-coming Wang Yihan beat former world No.1 Zhou Mi of Hong Kong 21-19, 17-21, 21-15 to win her first major international title.
The men’s final saw Lee jump to a 16-12 lead after 10-all in the first game.
But Dwi Kuncoro caught Lee at the 17th point and went on to win the set as the Malaysian slumped with a number of unforced errors.
Dwi Kuncoro led the second game all the way from an opening 5-0 gap, outpacing Lee with a variety of shots including three solid jumping smashes. The match ended when Lee’s backhand shot at 20-11 landed outside the baseline.
Wang came from behind in each game to beat her opponent.
Zhou took a 9-5 lead in the opening game but Wang tied her at 12-all. She again came back from 14-18 to catch Zhou at 18-all. At game point, Zhou deflected Wang’s smash wide.
In the second game, Wang also rallied from 14-20 down, winning four straight points but losing the set when Zhou smashed in.
The final game saw Zhou jump to a 8-4 lead, but a persistent Wang tied her at 10-all. At 13-all, Wang applied the pressure and the match ended when Zhou’s drop shot went short.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier