Taiwanese badminton player Chou Tien-chen (周天成) yesterday clinched the men’s singles title at the Korea Open, defeating Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in two straight sets.
World No. 4 Chou won 21-13, 21-16 against world No. 14 Sugiarto, 30, in a game that lasted only 39 minutes to secure his third title of the season.
Both players have beaten each other four times in their eight previous meetings, with Chou losing the most recent two before yesterday.
Photo: AFP
In the final, Chou came back from a 5-8 deficit to beat the Indonesian by unleashing a strong attack and adding seven points before taking the first set 21-13.
In the second set, Chou took the lead at the beginning before Sugiarto locked it up at 8, but Chou went on to retake the lead and finished 21-16.
The Korea Open, which has a purse of US$600,000, is a Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 500 series tournament.
It was the third major title for Chou this year after he beat Ng Ka Long (伍家朗) of Hong Kong in March in the final of the German Open, a BWF Super 300 Series event, and compatriot Hsu Jen-hao (許仁豪) in July to win the men’s singles title at the Singapore Open, also a BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.
Chou won silver after losing to Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in the final of the men’s singles at the Jakarta Palembang Asian Games in August.
Chou yesterday wrote on Instagram: “My heart is painful for the news of earthquake and tsunami. May God bless the people in Palu,” in response to the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island on Friday, killing more than 800 people.
Chou’s badminton coach at National Keelung Senior High School was Indonesian-Taiwanese badminton player Victo Wibowo.
Additional reporting by Chuo Chia-ping
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS