Thai pair go down fighting in Singapore
Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai will have to wait for their first Superseries title after losing the mixed doubles final of the US$350,000 BWF Singapore Open yesterday.
The Thai pair went down to Chinese third seeds Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong 21-19, 16-21, 11-21 in 68 minutes.
The champions received US$27,650 (around 950,000 baht) while Dechapol and Sapsiree took home $13,300 (around 456,700 baht).
It was always going to be an uphill battle against Lu and Huang who won the first three meetings against the Thais, with their latest victory coming in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open in Kuching last Friday.
Lu and Huang have been in remarkable form this season, reaching the finals of all five tournaments they’ve played so far.
The Singapore Open triumph was their third Superseries title this season. They won at the All England Open and India Open in March.
After l osing three finals together, Dechapol and Sapsiree claimed their breakthrough title at the $120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold event in Basel last month.
Top seed Tai Tzu-ying cemented her position as the world’s best female player after claiming her third title of the year with a 21-15, 21-15 victory over fourth seed Carolina Marin of Spain in the women’s singles final.
The Taiwanese world No.1 has proved to be an unstoppable force this year after claiming her third win in as many tournaments. She also beat reigning Olympic champion Marin in the title match of the Malaysia Open last Sunday.
Tai, who also won last month’s All England Open, is now on a run of five Superseries wins dating back to November last year. She won the Hong Kong Open in November and the Dubai World Superseries Finals in December.
She could become the first player to win four successive Superseries events in one calendar year at the Indonesia Open and the Australian Open in June.
B Sai Praneeth won the All-Indian final of the men’s singles against Kidembi Srikanth 17-21, 21-17, 21-12.
In the women’s doubles decider, Danish second seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen also needed three games to beat top seeds Misaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan 21-18, 14-21, 21-15.
Fifth seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark defeated fourth seeds Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China 21-13, 21-14 to claim the men’s doubles title.