ASIAN CHAMPS 2013 Finals – 3 to China, 2 to Ko!

Taipei again proved to be a happy hunting ground for Korea’s Ko Sung Hyun as he bagged two Badminton Asia Championship titles, in the men’s and mixed doubles. China scooped the remaining three.

By Lee Zhi Jun, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

Ko Sung Hyun (pictured) has to be one happy man.  The 25-year-old, with two different partners, beat two defending champions in Taipei Arena to take home two titles and ensure that China was limited to three golds on the day.

The day opened with the men’s doubles finals event, where Ko Sung Hyun / Lee Yong Dae faced their compatriots Kim Ki Jung / Kim Sa Rang.  Ko/Lee took the first game, easily winning 21-13, and were almost forced into the rubber game but managed to edge forward slightly to wrap up the match with 22-20 in the second game.

This means that Kim/Kim failed to defend their Asian Championship title from last year.  In fact, all the defending champions involved in the finals failed to keep their titles this year, including Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei and Li Xuerui.

In the only final match that did not involve players from the same country, the almost new pairing of Ko and Kim Ha Na upset second seeds China’s Zhang/Zhao in straight games of 22-20, 21-17.  Winning this mixed doubles title has added on to happy memories for Ko in Taiwan, who won the Chinese Taipei Open in 2011 as well as reaching the semi-final of the Superseries Finals in Taipei two years back.

Battle for who is the fittest in China

In both the men’s and women’s singles, it was a fight between the current stars in China.  Du Pengyu (pictured) surprisingly managed to defeat his in-form compatriot, Chen Long, who is still fresh from his victory in the All England Championships about a month ago.  Du played well to neutralize Chen’s attacking play, never really letting his opponent to get into the game.  He won in straight games 21-17, 21-19.

The women’s singles match was a rematch of last year’s final but in fact, Wang Yihan and Li Xuerui (pictured) have now met in 5 finals in the past 13 months.  However, this was Wang’s first taste of victory in those five attempts and it was actually an easy one for Wang Yihan.  Apart from a tie at 1-1 in the first game, Wang controlled the match, leading the way throughout the two games, not allowing Li to overtake her at any point.

The women’s doubles match was the only match that saw 3 games played in this finals day.  Top seeds Wang Xiaoli / Yu Yang smashed their way through the first game winning 21-15.  However, the situation was reversed in the second game as it was Ma Jin / Tang Jinhua’s turn to control and they won it 21-14.  In the third game, there was no looking back for Wang/Yu after a tie at 7 points as they raced to a 21-15 victory.

Final results
MD: Ko Sung Hyun / Lee Yong Dae (KOR) [1] beat Kim Ki Jung / Kim Sa Rang (KOR) [3] 21-13, 22-20
MS: Du Pengyu (CHN) [2] beat Chen Long (CHN) [1]  21-17, 21-19
WS: Wang Yihan (CHN) [2] beat Li Xuerui (CHN) [1]  21-15 21-13
WD: Wang Xiaoli / Yu Yang (CHN) [1] vs.  Ma Jin / Tang Jinhua (CHN) [5]
XD: Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei (CHN) [2] vs.  Ko Sung Hyun / Kim Ha Na (KOR)

Click here for detailed results