South Korea's Lee Hyun-il won the men's title in a gruelling match with top-seeded Lin Dan of China at the US$300,000 Korean Open badminton tournament in Seoul yesterday.
Lee lost the first game 4-21 but fought back to take two games 23-21, 25-23, displaying accurate shots and consistency that forced errors from the world No. 1.
It was South Korea's first men's title in 12 years.
PHOTO: AFP
In the women's singles tournament when the title went to unseeded Zhou Mi of Hong Kong. She triumphed 21-18, 15-21, 21-15 over China's No. 3 seed Lu Lan.
In the mixed doubles final, Lee Yong-dae and Lee Hyo-jung made it two titles for South Korea after coming back from a game down to take the match 15-21, 21-14, 21-18 against Flandy Limpele and Marisssa Vita of Indonesia.
The women's doubles final was an all-Chinese affair. Yu Yang and Du Jing defeated Gao Ling and Zhao Tingting in straight games 21-15, 21-13.
In the day's last final, China's Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng beat Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulian Chandra of Indonesia 21-7, 20-22, 21-17 to take the men's doubles title.
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