Chou Tien-chen established himself as Taiwan’s premier badminton player on Sunday, when he upset his Chinese opponent to win his country’s first men’s singles title in the BWF World Superseries.
The 24-year-old came from behind to beat Wang Zhengming 10-21, 25-23, 21-19 in the Yonex French Open 2014 final in Paris.
After clinching the match point, Chou lay on the court before getting up and shouting in joy as he threw his racket toward the crowd, which had been rooting for him for much of the game.
It was Chou’s first win against Wang in three encounters. The Chinese player, also 24, is seventh in the BWF World Rankings, while Chou is 13th after rising steadily in the rankings over the past year.
Until Sunday, the best results a Taiwanese male player had achieved in the BWF World Superseries were in 2009 and 2012, when Hsieh Yu-hsing and Hsu Jen-hao reached the men’s singles semi-finals respectively.
Chou got a shot at his first BWF World Superseries title by stunning No. 4 seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 14-21, 21-18, 21-19 in the semi-finals on Saturday last week.
In that contest, Chou showed great maturity against his more experienced rival, according to the BWF Web site.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Jemimah Rodrigues on Thursday hit an unbeaten 127 as India pulled off a record chase of 339 against Australia to set up a Women’s World Cup final against South Africa. Rodrigues and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who hit 89, put on 167 runs for the third wicket as India won with nine balls and five wickets to spare at DY Patil Stadium, on the outskirts of Mumbai. The hosts finished on a total of 341-5 in reply to Australia’s impressive 338 and ensured there would be a new name on the 50-over trophy tomorrow. Amanjot Kaur hit the winning boundary to trigger wild celebrations
Jannik Sinner on Thursday eased past Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-1 at the Paris Masters to set up a quarter-final clash with Ben Shelton, while reigning champion Alexander Zverev earned a straight-sets win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the third round. A maiden crown in the French capital would return Sinner to No. 1 in the world rankings after current incumbent Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock early exit at the hands of Britain’s Cameron Norrie. The Italian four-time Grand Slam champion is yet to drop a set in the tournament as he hones in on what would be a fifth title of the
RSS