Lee Chong Wei fails in bid for fifth Superseries title

PETALING JAYA: Lee Chong Wei failed in his mission to win his fifth World Superseries Finals title in Dubai.

The world No. 2 Chong Wei went down fighting 21-19, 19-21, 15-21 to defending champion and world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen in a gripping 84-minute men’s singles final at the Hamdan Sports Complex in United Arab Emirates on Sunday.

The 35-year-old Chong Wei almost had Axelsen in the second game when he won five points in a row to level the score at 19-19 but it was the Dane who pulled through to force the deuce.

In the decider,  the fired-up 23-year-old Axelsen pulled off all the right moves to hang on for a deserving win.

Chong Wei pocketed US40,000 (RM163,200) for his runner-up finish while Axelsen trooped home with US$80,000 (RM326,400).

Meanwhile, Indonesians Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo finally won their first world-level title when they bulldozed past Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan of China 21-16, 21-15 in the 39-minute final

Marcus-Kevin’s search for supremacy failed to take off previously, crashing out in the quarter-finals at last season’s Finals and the World Championships in August this year.

India’s P.V. Sindhu was forced to play bridesmaid again. She could not get the monkey off her back when she suffered yet another disappointment in the women’s singles final of a major tournament. She lost 21-15, 12-21, 19-21 to Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in a 94-minute clash.

She had also lost in the final at last year’s Rio Olympics and the World Championships in Scotland this year.

 

RESULTS

FINALS

Men’s singles: Viktor Axelsen (Den) bt Lee Chong Wei (Mas) 19-21, 21-19, 21-15.

Men’s doubles: Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Ina) bt Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan (Chn) 21-16, 21-15;

Women’s singles: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt P.V. Sindhu (Ind) 15-21, 21-12, 21-19;

Women’s doubles: Shiho Tanaka-Koharu Yonemoto (Jpn) bt Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota (Jpn) 21-16, 21-15;

Mixed doubles: Zheng Siwei-Chen Qingchen (Chn) bt Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet (Hkg) 21-15, 22-20.