 | « Back to article | Print this article |
World badminton: Thai Intanon claims shock title, Super Dan wins again
Teenage Thai Ratchanok Intanon won her first badminton world championship title when she upset Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the women's singles on Sunday to end China's decade of domination in the event.
Ratchanok, 18, beat Li 22-20 18-21 21-14 in Guangzhou, China, to become the first Thai to win the world championship and first non-Chinese woman since Denmark's Camilla Martin lifted the title at home in 1999.
World number one Li led 19-12 in the opening set but Ratchanok came storming back to take it 22-20, the first set the Chinese had dropped all week.
Li forced a decider in the second game but Ratchanok had control
Ratchanok nudged ahead 15-14 in the tight second before Li recovered to force a decider which the Thai was always in control of.
Her victory comes weeks after Thailand suffered its darkest day in the sport when former doubles partners Maneepong Jongjit and Bodin Issara brawled on court in the final of the Canadian Open, leading to lengthy bans.
Lin wins his fifth world championship
In the men's singles, Lin Dan overcame a year off to retain his title with another closely fought battle with old adversary Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who retired and was taken off court on a stretcher at match point down in the third set.
Lin's win was his fifth world championship and China's sixth consecutive one in the men's singles.
Olympic champion Lin wasted little time levelling the contest as he raced ahead 12-1 in the second set thanks to a run of seven consecutive points.
'Super Dan' went ahead 20-17 before Lee quit
Lin wrapped it up 21-13 to make it one set all but Malaysian media were unhappy, reporting that the air conditioning had been switched off in the venue by the Chinese organisers to Lee's disadvantage.
Lee, though, took a 10-6 lead in the third set and looked on course to claim a first world championship title after many years of near misses, only for Lin to storm back.
The Chinese, known as 'Super Dan', went ahead 20-17 before Lee called it quits to leave Lin celebrating a fifth world title.
Chinese dominate women's doubles event
In the first final of five at the TianheSportsCenter on Sunday, controversial duo Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, who were kicked out of the London Olympics in the play-to-lose scandal, claimed the women's doubles title over Jang Ye-na and Eom Hye-won of South Korea.
The Chinese top seeds won 21-14, 18-21, 21-8 to retain the title they won in London two years ago.
Later, Chinese top seeds Chen Xu and Jin Ma were beaten 21-13, 16-21, 22-20 by Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia in the mixed doubles.
Indonesian duo win men's doubles title
Indonesian duo Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan followed their compatriots by claiming the men's doubles title with a comprehensive 21-13, 23-21 win over Danish pair Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in 33 minutes.
That brought Lin and Lee to the court for the showpiece men's singles and the old rivals served up another classic encounter.
It was nip and tuck in the first set between the duo, who contested the Olympic final last year, with Lee breaking out from a 13-13 tie to take it 21-16.
© Copyright 2024 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.