Chinese shuttlers stunned by missing all titles of China Open
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E-mail Xinhua, November 21, 2016
Chinese shuttlers missed all the five titles on Sunday in BWF China Open's finals, which is the first time in the tournament's 30-year history.
China veteran coach Li Yongbo told Xinhua before the tournament began that it would be acceptable for Chinese young shuttlers to encounter some turbulence in the BWF games. He did not show up in the news briefing after all games finished.
Rio Olympic champion Chen Long was beaten by 4th-seeded Jan O Jorgensen, 20-22, 13-21 in the men's singles final. Chen kept a dominant 8-1 head-to-head lead against the Danish veteran before this game.
Jorgensen's last victory was back into Indonesia Open in 2014. He lost to Lee Chong Wei in Japan Open's final weeks ago, and did not fight into semifinals in France and Denmark.
"I'm really proud to win this tournament. I was in the final 7 years ago in China Open but lost to Lin Dan. It is my breakthrough today. I'm around the games for many years and finally beat the wonderful player Chen Long," said Jorgensen.
"Chen is so tough to beat and he's very stable. I had to play my best to beat him over very long time. I've been so close for many times. Today I stay calm and keep relaxed and focused all the time. Maybe Chen is not at his best but it was big credit for met today."
Chen Long told Xinhua it was a pity he missed the title again here because Jorgensen prepared much better than him.
"I did not play any tournament after Rio and I thought I might have stopped at first round. I'm satisfied that I ran to the final," Chen admitted.
Rio Olympic silver medalist Pusarla V. Sindhu from India was crowned at the women's singles by defeating China's Sun Yu, 21-11, 17-21, 21-11. Sun Yu kept a 3-2 lead history against Sindhu before and their last match was in Swiss Open in 2014. It is the first superseries title for Sindhu after Rio 2016.
"It was important for me to get a superseries title because I'm really thinking that I should get one after Rio. I thought I should take sometime to come back. I really worked hard. Every point in every match is important to me in this tournament. It was not that easy," said Sindhu.
"Sun and I are very tall and offensive players. It was nothing like strategy but on court we had just immediately change according to the points or strokes. It takes different strategy to face different Chinese players."
Sun said they played very closely. "Maybe I'm not patient enough, especially when my energy declined in the third set. Sindhu had big change these two years. She has become more aggressive and confident."
In the women's doubles final, the 6th-seeded duo Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee from South Korea knocked down the Chinese dark horse Huang Dongping/Li Yinhui, 13-21, 21-14, 21-17, who brushed off the champion and runners-up in Rio in the previous rounds.
"We lost the game mainly because we lack of experience and my physical strength dropped quickly in the third set," said Li.
Huang told Xinhua they were at the tailwind side in the first set and the game went smoothly but they were a bit hurried at the second set when they were facing headwind, especially they had some easy turnovers on backcourt kills.
"We lost to the South Korean duo in France and Denmark because of poor tactics. I believe we are progressing this time though we lost again. Maybe we did not hold up enough energy and failed to stick to the end."
In the mixed doubles final, Zhang Nan failed to defend the title after his partner changed from Zhao Yunlei to the 19-year-old Li Yinhui. The new pair was outplayed by Rio Olympic champion Tontowi Ahamad/Liliyana Natsir from Indonesia, 13-21, 24-22, 16-21.
"Li and I were trapped to passive status since the beginning and we were always falling behind. We made some change in the second set but the Indonesian pair put more pressure on the third. This is our second tournament and we need to improve the team work," said Zhang.
In the men's doubles final, Indonesian pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo beat down the fourth-seeded Danish duo Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen, 21-18, 22-20. Neither top-seeded Chai Biao/Hong Wei nor Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan from China strived to the finals.
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