Muelheim: World No. 1 Kento Momota kept his dominance in the German Open men’s singles final as he finished the match in style by beating compatriot and World No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto 21-10, 21-16 at the Innogy Sporthalle on Sunday.
The intense women’s singles final between World No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan and World No. 8 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand went right down to the wire. After losing the first set 16-21 to Intanon, Akane Yamaguchi bounced back to take the second set 21-14.
Both Yamaguchi and Intanon were neck and neck in the decider as Yamaguchi was diving all over the court to eventually clinching the championship point with a 25-23 win in the third set.
This was Yamaguchi’s third German Open title since 2017. Her victory also tied Xie Xingfang’s record (Lin Dan’s wife) for most German Open win in the women’s singles category.
As for Intanon, this was her second final of the year. The Thailand badminton star defeated Olympic champion Carolina Marin 21-9, 22-20 to win the Malaysia Masters title on Jan, 20, 2019.
In an all-Japanese men’s doubles final, No. 2 seeds Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe of Japan erased a first set deficit, orchestrated a spirited comeback to upset No. 1 seeds Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda 15-21, 21-11, 21-12 in 54 minutes to take home the men’s doubles title.
Du Yue/Li Yinhui brought some consolation to the China’s struggling women’s doubles department as they held off the late push my Rio Olympic champions Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi to win the first game 22-20. The Chinese pair withstood a furious comeback bid by Matsutomo/Takahashi in the second set to outlast the Japanese pair 21-15 to take home USD $11,850.
Meanwhile, mixed doubles No. 8 seeds Seo Seung Jae/Chae YuJung of South Korea needed only 36 minutes to see off No. 6 seeds Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia 21-17, 21-11.
The German Open was a BWF Super 300 event that offered total prize money of USD $150,000.
