Double joy for Marin, Axelsen in Bangkok
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Carolina Marin celebrating her win over Tai Tzu-ying at the Thailand Open yesterday.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BANGKOK • Spain's Carolina Marin and Viktor Axelsen of Denmark yesterday claimed their second Thailand Open badminton singles titles in a fortnight.
Axelsen was a commanding force against Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in the men's final in Bangkok, beating his compatriot 21-11, 21-7 and showing the difference in class, with the world No. 4 several levels above a veteran opponent ranked 38 places below him.
Earlier, Marin, the reigning Olympic women's singles champion beat top seed Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei for the second time in two weeks.
The 27-year-old went into yesterday's final without losing a single game across the two tournaments.
In a much tighter contest than the first final on Jan 17, Marin claimed the first game 21-19. Tai, 26, saved four match points in the second game but her comeback was too late as her opponent sealed the victory 21-17.
"I feel extremely happy. Two victories in two weeks, it's an amazing way to start the year," said Marin.
"I said to myself and my team that for 2021, I was going to be a new player, with a new mindset with more focus on the game."
Tai acknowledged she could not match Marin's pace.
"I couldn't control myself from making unforced errors," she said.
The first non-Asian woman to win an Olympic badminton gold, Marin has faced an uphill battle to recover from a knee injury in January 2019 but the past two weeks here have shown her form is returning.
The women's doubles was an all-Korean affair with sixth-ranked Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong too strong against fourth-ranked Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan, winning 21-18, 21-19.
In the men's doubles, seventh-ranked Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin of Chinese Taipei also made it back-to-back titles by beating Malaysia's ninth-ranked Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 21-13, 21-18.
The finale of the three-event series - the Badminton World Federation World Tour Finals - starts on Wednesday and will be contested by the top eight players and pairings of each discipline, minus the Chinese and Japanese shuttlers, who opted out of travelling to Bangkok amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
