SINGAPORE OPEN 2010 Finals – Super Singles: Saina, Sony

World no. 6 Saina Nehwal of India captured the 2010 Li-Ning Singapore Open Super Series women’s singles title, to make it two victories back-to-back title after the India Grand Prix Gold title she won last week.  World no. 12 Sony Dwi Kuncoro (photo) of Indonesia won the men’s singles title.

By Timothy Chan, Badzine Correspondent, reporting live from Singapore Indoor Stadium. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Sony Kuncoro of Indonesia, three-time Asian champion – in 2002, 2003 and 2005 – won his first Singapore Open title Sunday when he defeated Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 2-0 in 46 minutes, the longest match of the day. Unfortunately for Boonsak, this was the second consecutive year  that he had lost in the Singapore Open final. At last year’s Aviva Open final he lost to China’s Bao Chunlai in a 1-2 encounter.  Sony, who seemed to be in control most of the time, started with a narrow lead of 9-8. As he switched to more attacking play and through many on-target smashes he increased his points to lead Boonsak all the way till 14-9. Subsequently, with the continous and loud chanting of “SONY! SONY!” from the Indonesian fans, Sony was highly motivated towards winning his first game at 21-16.

In the second game, Boonsak still could not take the lead, trailing early 3-4. Only when after levelling at 5-5  could he finally take a narrow one-point lead at 6-5 when Sony send the shuttle out of the baseline, and later went back up 9-8 with a powerful jumping cross-court smash. At this point of time, his fans began to cheer him on and another competition erupted on the spectator stand between Sony’s supporters and Boonsak supporters, shouting out loud cheers and creating loud noise from those Li-Ning clappers.

But the winner was Sony as he took the advantage at 20-16, after which a net-shot error from Boonsak secured for Sony the championship point.

“I am tired after yesterday’s match against Peter Gade. Make many mistakes today and Sony was in control of the match,” Boonsak explained about his defeat. Anyway, as a consolation to himself, Boonsak also said that win or lose, he is always happy and like to play in Singapore.

“Winning or losing does not matter.  I always enjoy the game and focus on giving my best,” Sony shared on his philosophy for success.

Back to back titles for Saina

20-year-old Saina Nehwal (pictured) of India captured her second Super Series title after overcoming unexpected finalist teenager Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who celebrated her 16th birthday today.  Saina won her first Super Series title at last year Indonesia Open, but it was only four years ago this spring that she herself emerged on the international badminton scene as a 16-year-old victor, at the 2006 Philippine Open.

Actually, it was Tai who started well in the first game to lead at 14-9 but a determined and positive Saina continue to fight for her points to level at 16-all. Some entertaining swift and delicate slicing shots and powerful smashes saw both of them still deadlocked at 18-18. Two erratic swings by Tai sent the shuttle out and allowed Saina the 20-18 advantage and Tai then made the third mistake, hitting into the net and surrendering the first to Saina 21-18.

It was also the solid louder-than-yesterday chanting of “INDIA! INDIA!” that spurred Saina to come from behind from a trailing score to win this first game. Before the second game commenced, another section of the crowd began singing the Happy Birthday song to Tai to encourage her to do better to level with Saina and perhaps win the third game to take the title as her birthday gift. But the more experienced Saina had other ideas to spoil the anticipated party for Tai when she stormed to an 8-3 lead. More errors from Tai allowed Saina to pull away to further take a seven-point lead at 16-9. But Tai like before in her previous matches, showed that same fighting spirit to reduce the lead to four at 15-19.  One back-hand net error and one smash into the net by Tai then gift-wrapped the second game, and the championship, for Saina at 21-15.

When asked what her next target tournament is after winning the Singapore Open, Saina answered that it will be the Malaysia Open Grand Prix in July and World Championships in August. She does not want to look so far ahead and prefers to take on the other tournaments one by one when they come, leaving concerns about the Commonwealth Games in October and Asian Games in November for later.

Tai, who is from Kaoshiung, thinks that she played well today but unfortunately could not beat the more experienced Saina to bring home the title as her birthday gift. “I did not expect to reach the final. I am glad to play some strong players en route to final. I gained experience from playing them,” Tai told the media.

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