Mixed doubles joy for Thai shuttlers at Indian Open
Mixed doubles stars Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai ended their eight-month title drought after winning the US$850,000 (B30 million) BWF India Open last Sunday (Jan 21).
The sixth-seeded pair defeated fifth seeds Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin of China 21-16, 21-16 to win the World Tour Super 750 event at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi.
The victory was their 17th career title. The pair last won a tournament at the Malaysia Masters in May last year.
The triumph was the Thai pair's third straight win against the Chinese rising stars. Dechapol and Sapsiree won on both occasions when they played Jiang and Wei last year.
After being pushed to three games in their last two matches before Sunday’s final, the match against Jiang and Wei was much more straightforward for the world No.7 pair as Dechapol and Sapsiree tamed their Chinese opponents in 46 minutes.
Following their win, Dechapol and Sapsiree returned to Thailand on Monday to prepare for the Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters, which will take place from Jan 30-Feb 4.
In the women’s singles decider in
New Delhi, fourth seed Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan defeated second seed Chen Yufei of China 21-16, 21-12 to claim her first title of 2024.
Tai was a finalist at the season-opening Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 14, losing to top-ranked An Se-Young of South Korea in the title match.
Tai also won the season-ending World Tour Finals in December.
In the women’s doubles final, Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan defeated Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu of China 21-12, 21-13.
It was the Japanese duo’s first World
Tour title since the 2021 All England Open.
Sixth seed Shi Yuqi of China was crowned the men’s singles champion after the sixth seed defeated Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong 23-21, 21-17.
The Chinese veteran also won the Delhi tournament in 2018 when it was a Super 500 event.
He was a runner-up in the Malaysia Open two weeks ago, losing to Denmark’s Anders Antonsen in the decider.
Koreans Kang Min-Hyuk and Seo Seung-Jae beat India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chiraq Shetty 15-21, 21-11, 21-18 in the men’s doubles final.