Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying won her first game yesterday, but lost the next two and the final at the BWF World Tour Finals in China, while world No. 1 Kento Momota fought back from a game down to win his 11th badminton title of the year.
In the women’s final, China’s Chen Yufei roared back from a game down to defeat Tai 12-21, 21-12, 21-17.
The result means Chen is to replace Tai as world No. 1 in the rankings.
Photo: AFP
Tai led the whole way in the first game, but surged in the second with five consecutive points after trailing 0-1. Tai’s push to reassert herself was hampered by mistakes.
In the third game, she went down 4-8 early, but showed patience to get within two at 12-14, but Chen rattled off four in a row. Tai once again closed the gap, getting to within one at 17-18, but that was the end of her contribution to the scoreboard.
In the men’s final, the peerless Japanese defeated Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting 17-21, 21-17, 21-14 in 87 high-quality minutes in the final at the season-ending showpiece in Guangzhou.
Momota surpasses the 10 tournaments won by recently retired Malaysian great Lee Chong Wei.
“At this World Tour Finals, I played carefully from the first match partly with the aim of winning an 11th title,” the 25-year-old said.
“Even in tough games I did not give up,” he said.
Momota was pushed all the way by the speedy Ginting and the Japanese fell 12-5 down in the deciding third game to the world No. 8.
However, the reigning two-time world champion surged back.
Ginting was trailing 17-14 when he called the doctor on court for treatment to his right foot.
The fading Indonesian continued, but Momota rammed home his advantage to seal a stellar season in style.
The 23-year-old Ginting has now tasted defeat in all five of his finals this year.
“He led [in the deciding game], but I was patient,” said Momota, who was banned for a year in 2016 for illegal gambling.
“And then I got to know that he was suffering pain so all I needed to do was stay calm,” he said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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