LONDON GPG 2013 Finals – Second GP Gold gold for Tian

Tian Houwei wins his second career Grand Prix Gold title at the 2013 Adidas London event, beating Vittinghus of Denmark in two games. It was not all bad for Denmark however as first seeds Pedersen/Rytter Juhl beat their teammates in the women’s doubles the match previously.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent, live from London.  Photos: Raphael Sachetat for Badmintonphoto (live)

First seeds Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter-Juhl (pictured left) won the first final of the inaugural Adidas London Grand Prix Gold as they beat fellow Danes Line Damkjær Kruse / Marie Roepke (pictured left) in three games.

Their unseeded challengers started much better as the converted an 11-7 lead into a 21-12 victory. However their dominance was short lived as Juhl found her range in the second game hammering down smashes to take the second 21-17.

The third saw Roepke impatient in attack with the frustration showing as she smashed into the net. With a healthy 11-7 cushion at the change of ends, the first seeds confirmed the title as they won the match in just under an hour, the third game finishing 21-15.

Juhl spoke after the match, saying, “It’s so difficult to win tournaments. Especially on the Super Series tour, so it’s not often that we are on the highest step. We’re really happy.”

The pair started slowly, and spoke of the early moments in the match, “We didn’t feel that good on court in the first game. They played really well and had the right tactics from the beginning and we needed the first game to prepare for the rest of the match and I think we found the right tactics against them today.”

Pedersen commented on facing their teammates in the final, “It’s never easy to play against two other Danes. They know us so well and, of course, we also know them. But it’s always special and it was a special atmosphere on court.”

“You don’t look at them the same way you usually look at them but we usually try to be on top of our opponent so we tried to focus on our side of the net.”

Danish hopes didn’t fare so well in the second match on court, as Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (pictured left) came up short against a strong Tian Houwei (pictured above). The early exchanges were high quality, but Vittinghus struggled to breach the Chinese defence. Tian let the Dane back into the game whilst on match point, but held out to take the first 22-20.

The Dane led early in the second, but drawing level at the mid game, Tian pulled away to win 21-16. Speaking afterwards he said, “I felt like I had the right game plan, I just struggled with my discipline.”

“He got everything back and played really quick and I just wasn’t good enough.”

Tian spoke to say “It’s a new tournament for me, and hopefully the first of many.” Asked about his recent form, “I have been playing well, I still have lots to learn from them [players such as Lee Chong Wei] and I still hopefully have a lot of potential to improve.”

“I haven’t thought to much about rank, I just want to be an essential part of  the China team, to build up my game and to bring achievements home for the Chinese national team.”

The Danish doubles performed as expected in the last match on court, as first seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen beat Angriawan / Suwardi of Indonesia 21-13 21-16 in an entertaining match to finish off the inaugural Adidas London Grand Prix Gold.

Boe, spoke after the match, “It was easy, but we had to focus throughout the match. Luckily we could do that, the crowd helped us, we really enjoyed playing here in the UK as the setup is awesome. It was also quite packed, so it’s fun to play matches where the spectators are a big part of it. So that helped us a lot out there today and of course we’re delighted with the win.”

“We have talked a lot about coming back to London, almost living in the Olympic Village again, so we have a lot of good memories from last year.”

The full results for the day can be found here.