Odense: Women’s’ singles World No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan successfully defended her Denmark Open title on Sunday, outlasting World No. 4 Nozomi Okuhara 21-17, 21-14 in the final.
The Denmark Open final was Tai’s fifth final of 2019, and she kept pressuring the net shots of Okuhara to make her feel uncomfortable from the start. Okuhara tried to get back into rhythm through her smashes before Tai closed out the first set 21-17.
Okuhara increased her tempo in the second set, taking a healthy 5-2 lead with strong forehand and backhand shots. However, after 8-8, Tai started attacking with aggressive shots and disguised shots with deep push into Okuhara’s forehand corner to widen the gap at 18-10 to eventually wrapped up the game 21-14.
Tai was excited after the match.
“I felt great in here thanks for the support from the audience, and I really like playing here,” said Tai.
The Taiwanese extended her career head-to-head record against Okuhara to 6-4 after Sunday’s match.
In mixed doubles, Indonesia’s No. 6 seeds Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti continued their dark horse run by producing an improbable result, beating No. 2 seeds Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping of China 21-18, 18-21, 21-19 to win their first ever BWF World Tour Super 750 title.
Korea’s unseeded Baek Ha Na/Jung Kyung Eun overcame several false fire alarm alerts inside the Odense Sportspark and a calf injury sustained by Baek Ha Na to pull off an upset to beat No. 4 seeds Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan 9-21, 21-19, 21-15.
