China secure women’s singles title at BWF World Tour Finals, Shi plays Dane Antonsen for men’s crown
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HANGZHOU – China are assured of the women’s singles title, while world No. 1 Shi Yuqi stormed into the men’s singles final at the 2024 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals here on Dec 14.
In the men’s singles semi-finals, home favourite Shi withstood a fightback from Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-chen in the second game and clinched a 21-14, 21-18 victory.
“At the beginning of game I was feeling fatigued. Thanks to my opponent’s performance, I was able to find my rhythm back to win,” said world No. 1 Shi, who will meet second-ranked Anders Antonsen in the Dec 15 final. The Dane beat Indonesia’s world No. 4 Jonatan Christie 21-6, 15-21, 21-3.
In the women’s singles semi-finals, China’s Wang Zhiyi overcame reigning Olympic champion An Se-young of South Korea 21-17, 21-14, setting up a final clash against her teammate Han Yue.
The latter notched a 21-17, 21-13 victory against Japan’s Aya Ohori in the other semi-final.
Elsewhere, Olympic mixed doubles champions Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong won 21-11, 21-18 against Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin in an all-Chinese derby, and will fight for gold against Malaysian duo Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei.
Chinese women’s doubles pairs Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan and Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning, who won gold and silver respectively at the Paris Olympics, both lost their semi-finals.
The final will be played between South Korea’s Baek Ha-na/Lee So-hee and Japan’s Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida, while Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin and Denmark’s Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen cruised into the men’s doubles final. XINHUA
