Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Sunday captured the women’s singles title at the Denmark Open in Odense, while world No. 4 Chou Tien-chen had to settle for a silver medal in the men’s singles.
World No. 1 Tai defeated the world No. 10 Saina Nehwal of India 21-13, 13-21, 21-6 in a match that lasted 52 minutes.
In the first game, Tai warmed up quickly to lead 6-1 and eventually cruised to 21-13, before Nehwal put up a strong fight to the win the second game 21-13, pushing the match into a decider.
Photo: Reuters
It was in the third game that Tai resumed her fierce offensive and won the game 21-6.
It was the Taiwanese player’s 11th successive win against Nehwal.
“I am pretty excited because I enjoyed this tournament,” Tai told the BWF World Tour Web site, admitting that Nehwal’s second-game comeback had surprised her. “I didn’t expect that. She played faster which caused me to make more mistakes, but I was confident I would win because I know what I can do.”
In the men’s singles final, Chou fell short of his fourth title of the year after battling for 77 minutes against Japanese Kento Momota in their ninth face-off, eventually falling to a 22-20, 16-21, 21-15 defeat to the world No. 1.
In a closely fought match, the two players were tied at 20-20 in the first game before Momota managed to edge Chou 22-20.
In the second game, Chou took an 11-4 lead and held off Momota 21-16, but the Japanese made a strong comeback in the third, defeating Chou 21-15 to take the title.
Although Chou had to settle for a silver medal, he was expected to rise to world No. 3 after his defeat of Danish player Anders Antonsen, Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama, and South Koreans Lee Dong-keun and Son Wan-ho at the Denmark Open.
Chou has won three men’s singles titles so far this year, at the German Open, Singapore Open and Korea Open.
He defeated Ng Ka-long of Hong Kong in the final at the German Open in March, beat compatriot Hsu Jen-hao at the Singapore Open in July and crushed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in two games at the Korea Open last month.
Chou is next due to compete in the French Open in Paris from today until Sunday.
The Denmark Open carried a total purse of US$775,000.
Manchester United on Tuesday confirmed Michael Carrick as interim manager until the end of the season, tasking him with leading the Red Devils back into the UEFA Champions League. “Having the responsibility to lead Manchester United is an honor,” said Carrick, 44, who won 12 major trophies in his 12-year playing career at United. The former midfielder previously had an unbeaten three-game stint as caretaker boss at Old Trafford in 2021. Carrick then took on his first permanent managerial role at second-tier Middlesbrough in October 2022 and was sacked in June last year after the club finished 10th in the
Mohamed Salah’s Egypt knocked reigning champions Ivory Coast out of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with a 3-2 win in the quarter-finals on Saturday, while Victor Osimhen starred as Nigeria beat Algeria 2-0 to set up a clash with hosts Morocco. In Agadir, Morocco, a thrilling last-eight tie saw Omar Marmoush and Ramy Rabia net in the first half for the Pharaohs before an own goal by Ahmed Aboul-Fetouh brought the Ivorians back into it. Salah then got Egypt’s third early in the second half and they held on after Guela Doue again reduced the deficit. Egypt is to face Senegal
AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE: Sabalenka aims to follow up with a third Australian Open win, while Taiwanese Joanna Garland claimed a WTA 125 title in Canberra Aryna Sabalenka beat Karolina Muchova in straight sets to reach her third Brisbane International final in a row yesterday, a week ahead of the Australian Open. Sabalenka looked in great touch against the tricky Czech, who had won their last three meetings and went into the match as one of the few players with a winning record over the world No. 1. However, Sabalenka showed her class and power as she broke Muchova once in each set to take the semi-final 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes to face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final. “I struggled against her a couple of times [in
Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Sunday sparked defending champions Oklahoma City to victory, while Anthony Edwards led Minnesota’s last-minute fightback to beat San Antonio. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points while adding eight assists and five rebounds in the Thunder’s 124-112 home victory over Miami, improving the NBA’s best record to 33-7 after outscoring the Heat 70-53 in the second half. “We locked in defensively. We were finally able to get some stops,” Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins said. “We were able to get out in transition a little bit, get going offensively and find the flow.” Jalen Williams scored 18 points, while
RSS