Ratchanok succumbs to China’s Wang again
World champs Chen, Marin also crash out of Dubai Superseries Finals
Ratchanok Intanon’s fine run in the World Superseries Finals came to a grinding halt yesterday when she was beaten in straight sets by former world champion Wang Yihan of China in Dubai.
Third seeded Wang won the women’s singles semi-final 21-12, 21-12 without facing any real resistance from her Thai opponent.
Reigning Asian title-holder Ratchanok, also a former world champion, was a pale shadow of the player who had hammered second seeded Chinese Wang Shixian on Friday to storm into the semi-finals.
The Thai, who is so far winless against Wang Yihan in their 12 encounters, made numerous unforced errors yesterday to make the job easy for her Chinese rival.
The two had also clashed in the round-robin Group B battle when Ratchanok, now ranked No.7 in the world, succumbed to a 21-19, 19-21, 11-21 defeat.
Meanwhile, both world singles champions, Chen Long and Carolina Marin, were beaten in straight games yesterday on a day when the 2015 form book was torn up in the Superseries Finals.
Chen, who won seven Superseries tournaments this year, was beaten for the first time by Viktor Axelsen, the improving world No.6 from Denmark, only briefly showing his best form when he reached 17-15 in the second game before losing 21-12, 21-17.
Marin, who has won five major titles in her finest ever year, was beaten 21-11, 21-12, by Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, a result which was perhaps a little less surprising because it was the second time in 24 hours that it happened.
The conditions in Dubai are slow and Marin’s attacking game was unable to make much impact against a superbly mobile opponent who consistently got the shuttle back.
It suited Okuhara so much she may start today’s women’s singles final with an even chance of taking her first major title.
Chen however was by his standards sluggish and error-prone.
He also allowed himself to be tied up at the net quite a lot by the canny Axelsen, who knew this was the best way of frustrating his tall opponent’s long reach in defence and steep counter-attacks.
“I didn’t play so well today,” Chen admitted. “I didn’t have good fortune and my opponent played better than I did. But I am very happy about my performance for most of the year.”
He already has an eye on his preparation for the Olympics.
He may not have been quite as happy at any time as Axelsen appeared to be after this, his first win over Chen, and by far the biggest of his career.
He ran around in small circles and later acknowledged that he was “overwhelmed”.
“My game was to stay as relaxed as possible, to enjoy it and to play with variation — and therefore to try to smile,’’ he said.
Earlier, Chris and Gabby Adcock, the husband and wife from England, reached the final of the mixed doubles.