June Wei bags first-ever senior title in third final appearance

Third time lucky: Cheam June Wei is finally a champion after coming up short in his last two attempts in the Austrian Open and Finnish Open.

PETALING JAYA: Third time’s the charm for national shuttler Cheam June Wei.

The 21-year-old finally earned his breakthrough victory after beating Poland’s Adrian Dziolko 13-21, 21-13, 21-10 to clinch the Dutch International in Wateringen yesterday.

It was his third final appearance this year having finished runner-up twice including last week’s Finnish Open where he lost to compatriot Leong Jun Hao.

He also came in second at the Austrian Open in February.

June Wei vowed to stay grounded and keep winning.

“I’m so happy that I have finally won my first senior title,” said a jubilant June Wei.

“But there’re more challenges that I have to face after this, so I will focus on my training everyday and stay hungry to win more titles after this.”

June Wei said he was proud to make a strong comeback after being caught off guard by his opponent’s strong attacking display.

“He is tall and he has great attacking flair and I couldn’t play my game in the first game,” he explained.

“After the second game, I changed my strategy and luckily I bounced back strongly. Staying patient was the key.”

M. Thinaah failed to make it a double joy for Malaysia in the International Series graded tournament.

Thinaah went down fighting 21-17, 15-21, 11-21 to reigning European junior champion Julie Dawall Jakobsen of Denmark in the women’s singles final.

Thinaah took the defeat in her stride.

“I played quite well overall but it just wasn’t good enough,” said Thinaah, who won the Iran Fajr International Challenge in February.

“Perhaps, I could have done a little bit better to make a difference because in the third game, I was able to cope with my opponent.

“But I’ll take this result as a learning curve and come back stronger.

“It was a great tournament as I could get my momentum and rhythm right.”