VIETNAM OPEN 2014 – Veterans and teens share honours

33-year-old Vita Marissa and 18-year-old Rosyita Eka Putri Sari were among the winners at the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Open Grand Prix badminton event in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday.  Nozomi Okuhara of Japan accounted for the only title not heading home with the Indonesian team.

By Don Hearn.  Photos: Badmintonphoto and Don Hearn (archives)

The Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Open Grand Prix finished on time on Sunday, despite the rather frightening disruption of Tuesday afternoon, when the roof of the official venue suffered a partial collapse.  Fortunately, no one was injured and with play continuing at an alternate venue, the tournament itself escaped nearly unscathed, save for the very public black eye caused by the Youtube video of the accident.

One of beneficiaries of the tournament being seen through to completion was  Indonesian youngster Rosyita Eka Putri Sari (pictured).  After coming up short in two finals in this year’s World Junior Championships, the 18-year-old took her first international title on the senior stage, and a Grand Prix one at that.  In fact, her previous best outside of junior events was a runner-up at last year’s Maldives International Challenge, where she was beaten by her current partner Maretha Dea Giovani.

Some of Rosyita’s compatriots have been more familiar with the top of the podium this year.  Vita Marissa and Muhammad Rijal added a Grand Prix title to the International Challenge and Grand Prix Gold titles they won earlier in the year.  Their opponents Fadhilah/Anggraini may have made a much better showing than their four first-round exits together this year but just couldn’t find a way past the experience of their opponents in the final.

32-year-old Hendra Aprida Gunawan also saw his success continue in a partnership just formed this year.  After winning the Chinese Taipei Open in July, Gunawan and Andrei Adistia (pictured), despite being on the precipice at the end of the second game, came back to deny Japan’s Kazuno/Yamada their own 3rd title of the year.

The one breaking a hiatus in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday was Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka.  It had been almost 3 years since the world #25 won in his second of 4 straight appearances in the final of the Indonesian Grand Prix Gold.  That was his last international title before he came back from a game down to deny Haseena Sunilkumar Prannoy of India in his first ever Grand Prix final appearance.  Rumbaka may not be as excited as he would ordinarily be about this being a springboard for his outing as the #1 seed in Palembang.  Despite being the 3rd highest Indonesian in the men’s singles rankings, he is not to be a member of the men’s team for the Incheon Asian Games later this month.

The only title that went north after Sunday’s finals was the women’s singles.  As in the men’s singles, where the eventual champion had beaten the home favourite in the semi-finals, Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara (pictured) shut down Vietnam’s Vu Thi Trang on Saturday.  It wasn’t as dramatic as Rumbaka’s 70-minute marathon semi-final victory over 4-time champion Nguyen Tien Minh but she stopped Vu, the 2010 Youth Olympic bronze medallist, from reaching her first ever Grand Prix final.

As it is, Nozomi and team-mate Aya Ohori are nearly splitting the Grand Prix tour between them, as Nozomi already collected the New Zealand Open title this spring and Ohori took her second straight Russian Open title in July.  Nozomi was the easy winner on Sunday in Vietnam, beating Ohori in two straight.

Final results
XD: Muhammad Rijal / Vita Marissa (INA) [1] beat Irfan Fadhilah / Weni Anggraini [2]  21-18, 21-10
WS: Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) beat Aya Ohori (JPN)   21-15, 21-11
MS: Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA) [1] beat Prannoy H. S. (IND) [5]  18-21, 21-15, 21-18
WD: Maretha Dea Giovani / Rosyita Eka Putri Sari (INA) beat Gebby Ristiyani Imawan / Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istirani (INA)  21-19, 15-21, 21-10
MD: Andrei Adistia / Hendra Aprida Gunawan (INA) [7] beat Kenta Kazuno / Kazushi Yamada (JPN) [8]  15-21, 23-21, 21-17

Click here for complete results