Chen to become year-end world No. 1 after winning World Tour Finals

Xinhua

Home badminton star Chen Yufei defeated current world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei to win the women's singles championship at the BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou on Sunday.

Chen will replace Tai to become the year-end world No. 1 for the first time in her career. For the Chinese team, a singles top place has been missing for a long time in the women's game. It was London Olympics champion Li Xuerui who was ranked No. 1 in 2015 and now, after four years, Chen will regain the top spot for China.

Chen dropped the first game against Tai, but rebounded to clinch the title 12-21, 21-12, 21-17.

"I was very calm after the loss of the first game. When I was behind, the only thing I thought was to keep up," said Chen, who made it seven out of seven wins in finals this year.

Looking ahead to next year's Tokyo Olympics, Chen said: “In the year of the Olympics, the victory in the Finals is not enough. The future will not be easy and I will work hard in 2020."

Earlier, Japan's Kento Momota claimed a season-record 11th crown to surpass Lee Chong Wei's 10 titles in 2010 by beating Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men's singles final.

The Japanese, who was honored with the BWF Male Player of the Year Award, made up for last year's Finals loss to China's Shi Yuqi as he came from behind to win 17-21, 21-17, 21-14.

Ginting took the first game by winning four consecutive points after 17-17, but Momota withstood the pressure to score four points in a row after 15-15 and cruised to victory in the second game.

From 12-all in the decider, Ginting appeared tired while Momota controlled the rhythm to clinch victory.

"In the decider, I was really tired and hoped to win the match as soon as possible. But my opponent was flexible in his style, so I sought to be patient enough for these long rallies. Finally, I won it with my patience," said Momota.

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The Japanese has had an outstanding season during which he won most of the major titles, including the world championships, the Asia Championships, and the All England title. He also guided Japan to the Sudirman Cup final.

After surpassing Malaysian Lee's haul of 10 titles from 2010, Momota said he would not be satisfied with 11 titles. "I have participated in numerous tournaments this year, which is really tiring. I feel honored for these awards, but I will achieve better results in the future."

The 23-year-old Ginting has now tasted defeat in all five of his finals this year.

China's Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong, meanwhile, secured their golden season by winning the mixed doubles crown.

Zheng and Huang scored a surprisingly easy victory over compatriots Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, winning 21-14, 21-14 in just 35 minutes to add to their victories from the world championships and all three Super 1000 titles in this year.

Zheng and Huang also avenged last year's Finals loss to Wang and Huang.

"It feels great that we won this tournament for the first time together. We lost our last three finals, so it's good that we returned to our winning ways again," said Huang.

This is Zheng and Huang's seventh title of the year and their first since the China Open in Changzhou. Their victory on Sunday came after they fell in their last three finals — at the Korea Open, the French Open, and the Fuzhou China Open.

China won a third title in Guangzhou when Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan captured the women's doubles title by brushing aside the Japanese duo of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-14, 21-10, with Indonesians Mohanmmad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan seeing off another Japanese pair of Hiroyuku Endo and Yuta Watanabe 24-22, 21-19 to claim the men's doubles crown.

Xinhua