Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain tore her anterior cruciate ligament in January.
On Sunday, she faced no. 4-ranked Tzu Ying Tai (TPE) in the finals of the China Open and promptly lost the first set, 21-14. But that didn’t stop her and she returned in style, winning the last two sets by 21-17 and 21-18 for the 2-1 win.
“I cannot describe my feelings right now because I’m so happy,” said Marin. “There was some frustration with myself in the first game. I tried to keep calm. I had to be patient and find the good length on the shuttle. But the most important thing is I could fight until the end. I just waited until she made mistakes. I just wanted to play some long rallies because I knew this match was going to be really tough. She has good strokes, she has so much deception that I had to be careful.”
No. 1-ranked Kento Momota (JPN) continued to impress, winning his fifth tournament of the season with a come-from-behind, 19-21, 21-17, 21-19 win over Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting.
The no. 1-ranked men’s and Mixed Doubles teams both won: Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) and Siwei Zhend and Yaqiong Huang (CHN), respectively. China’s Qingchen Chen and Yifan Jia, ranked nl. 4, pulled off a minor upset by defeating no. 3 Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan in straight sets. Summaries:
BWF World Tour/China Open
Changzhou (CHN) ~ 17-22 September 2019
(Full results here)
Men/Singles: 1. Kento Momota (JPN); 2. Anthony Ginting (INA); 3. Long Chen (CHN) and Anders Antonsen (DEN). Final: Momota d. Ginting, 19-21, 21-17, 21-19.
Men/Doubles: 1. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA); 2. Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA); 3. Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Ardianto (INA) and Junhui Li/Yuchen Liu (CHN). Final: Gideon/Sukamuljo d. Ahsan/Setiawan, 21-18, 17-21, 21-15.
Women/Singles: 1. Carolina Marin (ESP); 2. Tzu Ying Tai (TPE); 3. Yufei Chen (CHN) and Sayaka Takahashi (JPN). Final: Marin d. Tai, 14-21, 21-17, 21-18.
Women/Doubles: 1. Qingchen Chen/Yifan Jia (CHN); 2. Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN); 3. Ye Na Chang/Hye Rin Kim (KOR) and Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN). Final: Chen/Jia d. Matsutomo/Takahashi, 21-14, 21-18.
Mixed Doubles: 1. Siwei Zheng/Yaqiong Huang (CHN); 2. Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN); 3. Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA) and Seung Jae Seo/Yujung Chae (KOR). Final: Zheng/Huang d. Wang/Huang, 21-17, 13-21, 21-16.
