Sunday, March 14, 2010

Chong Wei an All England champ at last


Lee Chong Wei was crowned All England Open 2010 men's singles champion for the first time after beating Kenichi Tago of Japan at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on Sunday.

To add another feather to his cap, Chong Wei's victory coincided with the 100th anniversary of the championships.

The Penang-born shuttler made it to the final last year but he went down gallantly to Lin Dan of China.

Trailing 0-4 at the outset of the first game, Chong Wei clawed his way back to win the closely fought encounter 21-19 against Tago.

In the second game, the plucky Tago forced Chong Wei into errors before the world number one got the better of him with a score of 21-19.

Tine pulled off an upset

Despite his defeat, Tago was still a giant killer where he eliminated top names, Bao Chunlai and Chen Jin of China, on his way to the final.

Earlier, in the women's singles final, world number 10 Tine Rassmussen of Denmark pulled off an upset over defending champion and world number one Wang Yihan of China to grab the prestigous title.

Rassmussen beat Wang 21-14, 18-21, 21-19 after an hour-long match.

In the mixed doubles, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China won the title after defeating world number two Nova Widianto-Liliyana Natsir 21-18, 23-25, 21-18.

The battles for the championship titles in the men's and women's doubles involving Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen and Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen of Denmark, and Du Jing-Yu Yang and Cheng Shu-Zhao Yunlei of China respectively are scheduled later Monday morning. — Bernama

No comments: