MACAU OPEN 2012 Finals – Sun shines in soggy Macau

Sun Yu picked up her first international title on the senior stage, winning the Kumpoo Macau Open Grand Prix Gold while Chinese Taipei’s Lee / Tsai picked up their first title in their second tournament together.

By Angga Maulana Akbar, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives).

Women’s singles moves fast in badminton and the veterans cannot ever take the juniors lightly, as one of the up and coming stars demonstrated her strength in this major tournament. The women’s singles final pitted an 18-year-old, Sun Yu (pictured) of China, against Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who is only 16.

The final saw Ongbamrungphan unable to repeat her success in the Malaysian Grand Prix Gold event, the unseeded Sun Yu winning in straight games, 21-19, 21-8.

With this victory, Sun Yu has defeated nearly all of her fellow rising junior stars.  She beat Pusarla Venkata Sindhu of India at the Asian Junior Championships last year, then Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying at this year’s World Junior Championships. She has not yet had the opportunity, however, to play against the three-time World Junior Champion Ratchanok Intanon.  She was the last of the six to reach a Grand Prix final but Sindhu is still waiting for her first title and Nozomi’s was not at the Grand Prix Gold level.

In the women’s doubles, Korea’s Eom Hye Won / Jang Ye Na (pictured) refused to cede a second straight Macau Open final to a pair of compatriots.  After failing to finish last year’s final against Jung Kyung Eun / Kim Ha Na, Eom and Jang, who just made their entry into the world’s top 10 last week, beat out their understudies Choi Hye In  / Kim So Young 21-18, 21-16. The Korean women’s team are proving their strength in depth with impressive performances by the replacements in the wake of the suspensions from the Olympic fiasco.

The mixed final saw the top seeds Tontowi Ahmad / Lilyana Natsir defeat their third-seeded team-mates Muhammad Rijal / Debby Susanto, in three games to take a hat-trick of Macau Open titles. For the world’s number 2 pair, it will give them confidence for the Superseries Finals later this month, while Rijal/Susanto, who also qualified, will have to take on the valuable lessons if they are to make an impact in Shenzen.

The men’s singles saw a rare encounter between two seldom-seen Chinese shuttlers, Gao Huan and Chen Yueken. Chen Yueken gave his compatriot a hard time in the first game, taking a 14-2 lead early on to close it out 21-9. The second game saw the score level to 14-all, but once again Chen moved ahead to close out the game 21-17 to take the title.

The men’s doubles saw the top seeds and last Europeans standing, Russia’s Vladimir Ivanov / Ivan Sozonov, take on Lee Sheng Mu / Tsai Chia Hsin (pictured) of Chinese Taipei.  Ivanov was unable to grab his second Grand Prix Gold title of the year after his success in the men’s singles at the U.S. Open. The Russians took the first game 14-21 but fell to Lee/Tsai in the remaining games 21-17, 21-16 in 41 minutes.

Despite the loss, Ivanov/Sozonov can reflect on their best ever effort on Chinese soil after they found themselves winless at both the Hong Kong Super Series and China Premier Super Series events, not to mention in their two Chinese outings in team events.

Final results
WD: Eom Hye Won / Jang Ye Na (KOR) [1] bt Choi Hye In / Kim So Young (KOR)  21-18, 21-16
WS: Sun Yu (CHN) bt Busanan Ongbamrungphan (THA) [7]  21-19, 21-8
XD: Tontowi Ahmad / Liliyana Natsir (INA) [1] bt Muhammad Rijal / Debby Susanto (INA) [3]  21-16, 14-21, 21-16
MS: Chen Yuekun (CHN) bt Gao Huan (CHN)  21-9, 21-17
MD: Lee Sheng Mu / Tsai Chia Hsin (TPE) bt Vladimir Ivanov / Ivan Sozonov (RUS) [1]  14-21, 21-17, 21-16

Click here for complete results