TEENAGER JIA WEI BAGS POLISH OPEN TITLE

PETALING JAYA: Teenager Tan Jia Wei earned a career breakthrough after clinching the men’s singles crown at the Polish Open.

The 19-year-old Jia Wei took his chances well to beat fourth seed and world No. 62 Ygor Coelho of Brazil 21-13, 20-22, 21-10 in a 63-minute duel in Warsaw yesterday.

It was a superb win for world No. 220 Jia Wei as he also had to play three qualifying matches to get into the main draw of the fifth-tier tournament.

Despite playing seven matches in three days prior to the final, Jia Wei still had enough in the tank to seal his first career title.

“I’m really happy because I didn’t expect to reach the final in the first place,” said a jubilant Jia Wei.

“It was a really tough tournament as I had to start from the qualifying rounds and playing so many matches.

“I was struggling with my condition in the earlier matches. But I got lucky. My form started to pick up in the quarter-finals.

“And I really appreciate the support I have here. My coach Indra (Wijaya) is here and there’s also a physiotherapist from the National Sports Institute (NSI) who helped me to recover from all the tough matches.

“It’s really a great start to my career. I hope I can go on do well in my upcoming tournaments to improve my ranking,” added Jia Wei whose next assignment is the Orleans International in France from March 30-April 2.

There was, however, no joy for women’s singles shuttler Lee Ying Ying.

The 19-year-old, who was competing in her third international final, ran out of steam to lose 21-13, 19-21, 10-21 to Japanese third seed Yui Hashimoto.

Hosts Poland were the biggest winners after claiming both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles.