PETALING JAYA: Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi were left to rue a glorious opportunity to bag the biggest title of their careers.
The independent men’s doubles pair had looked on course to capture the Asian Championships title when they were leading 21-16 and 11-5 in the final against India’s world No. 6 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty but threw away their advantage to lose 21-16, 17-21, 19-21 in Dubai yesterday.
With the defeat, world No. 8 Yew SIn-Ee Yi’s only World Tour-level title remains the Thailand Masters won in 2020.
It was a bitterly disappointing end for Yew Sin-Ee Yi, who had stunned Indonesia’s world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto and Japan’s 2021 world champions Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in straight games en route to the final.
They came close yesterday to ending a three-year title drought but did not have that little extra to wrap it up with a strong finish.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag, who have improved so much over the past years under the guidance of former Olympics silver medallist Mathias Boe of Denmark, proved to be tenacious opponents.
The Indians simply refused to give up until the end and managed to nick the win and their biggest crown to date.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Indonesia’s world No. 2 Anthony Ginting captured his first title of the year in style by sweeping aside Singapore’s 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew 21-12, 21-8 in a surprisingly one-sided affair.
It was Anthony’s first title since winning the Hylo Open last November.
In the women’s singles, Taiwan’s world No. 4 Tai Tzu-ying stunned South Korea’s world No. 2 and All-England champion An Se-young 21-10, 21-14 to win the title.
