CHINA OPEN 2012 Finals – Impenetrable Chinese Walls

The Great Wall of Chinese badminton may have been tested and challenged during the China Open Superseries Premier in Shanghai.  However, at the end of the week, it stood rock solid as the host country pocketed four out of the five gold medals.  China let only the men’s doubles title leave, with Denmark’s Mathias Boe / Carsten Morgensen, who nabbed it for the second straight year.

By Serla Rusli, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Yohan Nonotte for Badmintonphoto (live)

Opening the day’s winning streak were mixed doubles first seeds Xu Chen / Ma Jin. They beat Chan Peng Soon / Goh Liu Ying in a smooth 21-15, 21-17 match. This title added to their impressive list of achievements this year, most notably China Open Superseries Premier being their fourth consecutive Superseries titles after the China Masters, Denmark Open and French Open, and all this after an Olympic silver medal.

Up next to take the limelight was Olympic champion Li Xuerui (pictured above) She outclassed her opponent Ratchanok Intanon with a convincing 21-12, 21-9 victory. Intanon was on her maiden attempt in the final of a  Superseries event, but Li needed only 31 minutes to dash the Thai youngster’s hope of having a go at the title at all.

Wang Xiaoli / Yu Yang (pictured right) rose to the occasion next. They were awarded with the title after their Japanese opponents Miyuki Maeda / Satoko Suetsuna retired from the match at 14-7 in the second game. Suetsuna was suffering from back pain after a fall at the back of the court and decided that she was unable to continue with the match.

Chen Long (photo) took the last title for the Chinese squad for the night after beating his comrade Wang Zhengming in a 21-19, 21-18 match.

Men’s doubles was the reason China was unable to complete a full circle in the title race at the last 2012 Superseries Premier event. The final was a no-Chinese affair between Mathias Boe / Carsten Morgensen and Ko Sung Hyun / Lee Yong Dae.

Olympic silver medallists Mathias Boe / Carsten Morgensen (pictured below) managed to defend their title in China by beating the increasingly formidable pair of Ko and Lee. The Koreans have been major threats to many of the seeded players in the tournament, having ousted Olympic champions and homeground favourites Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng, as well as higher-ranked Hiroyuki Endo / Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan and their own comrades Kim Ki Jung / Kim Sa Rang en route to the final.

However, they­ finally had to succumb to the Danish duo, who have been struggling with their tournament performance post Olympics, in an unexpectedly easy match of 21-15, 21-14 that followed up their defeat of Lee and former partner Jung Jae Sung in the Olympic semi-final. Right after their victory, the Danes performed the now famous “Gangam Style” choreography, facing their Korean opponents.

Most of the players will now take the flight to Hong Kong for the last Superseries of the year – an important one to get the last points for the Superseries Finals.

Full results HERE