Badminton Asian C ships: Momota, Tai clinch singles titles
Wuhan April 29 (IANS) Japan s Kento Momota and Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei bagged the men s singles and women s singles titles respectively at the Badminton Asian Championships here on Sunday.
Former world No. 2 Kento Momota of Japan finished the week in style beating defending champion Chen Long of China 21-17 21-13 to win the summit clash of the men s singles event reports Xinhua news agency.
Also it was Momota s first victory over Chen in their five meetings.
The Japanese shuttler went into the break in the first game with a 11-8 lead. Although the Rio Olympic champion Chen restored himself and hit a 6-1 to overturn the score Momota again reclaimed the lead with a five-point winning streak.
The second game turned to be a one-sided fight as Momota eventually collected the title in an hour.
"It was the turning point of the whole match when I led by 14-12 in the first game I was caught in his pace which made me lose points in row " Chen said after the match.
In the women s singles final Tai defended her title as she managed to carve out a 21-19 22-20 win over China s Chen Yufei.
The 42-minute long clash saw a close fight between the two finalists however Tai held her nerve to emerge victorious.
It was Yufei s second defeat to the former world No. 1 this year the eighth of her career after she had lost to Tai at the All-England Open last month where the latter eventually won the title.
"In the beginning of the game I had too many faults. So I was trying to tell myself to calm down " Tai 24 said.
"Chen is always improving. In fact she played more consistently than me today and gave me great pressure " she added.
Earlier the home mixed doubles pair of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping registered a 21-17 21-17 win over top-seeded Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia.
In the men s double final reigning champions Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China claimed a sensational win. Coming from one game down the Chinese duo overcame Japan s Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda 11-21 21-10 21-13 to defend their title.
"It s a game worth carefully reviewing and summarizing " Li said adding "We had a poor start in the first game but we restored in the second and levelled the score. In the third our confidence was back."
Meanwhile the women s double final saw a battle between two Japanese pairs. Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota defeated Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi 21-18 18-21 21-15.
--IANS
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