KOREA Open Badminton Championships 2022 (05-10 April 2022) : R/32 to Final

FINAL


Home favorite An SY is too hot to handle for Sindhu in their fourth meeting. Former champion tried her best and put an all out effort to score point and disrupt the rallies due to her opponent marvelous retrieving skill and meticulous shots. The speedy and aggressive game likely will trouble the Korean young aspirant. Chochuwong denies all Korean finals to outlast Kim GE who has dangerous and sharp attacking smash but modest court coverage, her agility and footwork isn’t as good as the energizer An. Thai representative played smarter and began to alert of Kim offensive shots after losing first game. The stats pointing out An is clear favorite to top podium tomorrow, Korea has found new gem following Sung Ji Hyun retirement and perhaps An is the next Bang So Hyun, KOR most successful WS player to date, the Olympic Champion in Atlanta 1996.

Jonatan Christie continues consistent form to book another final of BWF tour this year after SUI Open couple of weeks ago, his style of play has been changed slightly to implement more rallies as defense aspect is improved significantly, Srikanth effort to narrow the gap in second game failed due to his disadvantage habit, easy to waste chance while Christie started to speed up the tempo and more attacking shots coming towards the finish line. Promoted player from reserved list and world ranking #156 advancing into maiden final of BWF top tier tournament, Weng Hongyang beat a number of unseeded players en route to last round, biggest result so far in his career. The nothing to lose Chinese looked confident, stable in opening game against Victor Svendsen as both players did rally drill and targeting tight net shot to punish with hard smash. The more patient and focus Chinese left-hander played comfortably in the second as the Dane began to produce cheap point.

• The opportunity is here for both pairs, Tan/Lai and Ko/Eom to earn 9,200 points in the absence of several top guns, Bass/Popor, WataHiga and the Olympic Champions. The Malaysians beat Rivaldy/Mentari where second part of the match was really entertaining and tensed, just too bad the young Indonesians didn't execute right shots at critical stages, their flat game troubled the vast experienced MAS combination.

• Korean scratch combination Kang MH/Seo SJ subdued three-time World Champions Ahsan/Setiawan who practically ran out of steam in deciding game. The youth speed and power against the veterans who relying on defense and unpredictable placement, their performance quite hampered by Ahsan thigh injury that hasn’t fully recovered yet. Other MD semifinal presents something unconventional atmosphere, the recent All England champions Fikri/Maulana lost meekly to Alfian/Ardianto in just 24 minutes, a very lopsided all INA affairs.

• Second S500 final for Aimsaard sisters after IND Open in New Delhi early year and they will take on current All England semifinalists Jeong NE/Kim HJ who defeated the Thais in their first meeting. A fortunate event for the winning pair in this discipline, only playing three times and will pocket US$28,440 prize-money.

 

Perhaps they're categorized "old" in Paris 2024 (especially Huang YQ who will turn 30) by CBA standard and regeneration interest. Their near invincibility in XD looks waned lately. Ou/Huang plus Zheng/Zhang must participate many low level tournaments to upgrade WR otherwise it'll be gone case.