PETALING JAYA: Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie captured his first title of the year after handing an upset to Anders Antonsen of Denmark at the Korean Open men’s singles final.
Fourth seed Jonatan had to go the distance but prevailed against top seed Antonsen as the Indonesian won 21-10, 15-21, 21-17 in an hour and 15 minutes at the Suwon Gymnasium yesterday.
The match had started with both players coming out strong, but the match was halted for several minutes at 5-5 as Antonsen was bleeding from his elbow.
Although it was bandaged, Antonsen was visibly bothered by it, and gave Jonatan the chance to take the lead after the first game.
But despite fighting hard and forcing a rubber set, Antonsen could not contain his opponent as Jonatan marked his seventh win against the Dane player out of 12 meetings on court.
“Sure, it’s not the biggest tournament, but this win means a lot to me,” said Jonatan.
“To win a Super 500 after struggling with injuries and recoveries, I just kept believing in myself to find the motivation, and this is the reward.
“I want to chase more, but right now I want to get more points to level up. I have been trailing so I want to get as much as I can this year,” said the world No. 6.
In the women’s singles, second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan stormed past home hero An Se-young to win 21-18, 21-13 and capture her second win of the year.
Yamaguchi, who won the World Championships in Paris last month, got her revenge on Se-young, who had knocked her out in the semi-finals of the China Masters last week and went on to win the tournament.
In men’s doubles, South Koreans Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae won their eighth title of the year as they defeated Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Mohd Shohibul Fikri 21-16, 23-21.
It was the top seeds’ third consecutive title after winning the World Championships and China Masters crowns.
South Korea had another reason to cheer as the second-seeded women’s doubles duo Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong fought hard to topple top-seeded Japanese pair Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi 21-19, 21-12.
The mixed doubles final was an all-Chinese affair, and top seeds Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping came out on top against second seed Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin, winning 25-23, 21-11, which also marked their 12th win against their compatriots.
