Saarbrucken: Despite trailing 5-14 in the decider, Taiwan’s World No. 4 Chou Tien Chen exhibited heroic mental strength to save 6 match points, but eventually lost to the umpire, yes, correct, the umpire of the match – Henrik Boas of Denmark instead of his opponent, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
When the score was tied at 22-22 in the decider, and Chou was returning a drop shot from Ginting at the left front court area, but he was faulted by Boas saying the shuttlecock already touched the court before Chou was able to return the shuttlecock. Based on the slow-motion screenshots below, there’s no way that the shuttlecock had already touched the court before Chou’s return of the shuttlecock.
Chou requested an instant replay immediately, but both the tournament referee and the umpire refused to do that, and the service judge was just keeping his mouth shut. The ridiculous judgment from all these tournament officials at Hylo Open made both the tournament and Badminton World Federation (BWF) look so extremely unprofessional. There were so many cameras around the court, there’s no reason the organizer won’t be able to grant an instant replay, especially when this type of controversial call happened especially during the deuce in the decider.
That gave Ginting the 23rd point. Chou was clearly frustrated and easily gave up the 24th point to finish the runner-up of the tournament.
“I think it’s because I didn’t play well at the beginning that’s why the score was so close in the decider. I need to work on my emotional control regardless if the shuttlecock has landed on the court or not,” said Chou.
“I also would hope BWF to set up a better system to judge controversial issues in badminton such as hitting the shuttlecock across the net, and shuttlecock touches the court, etc,” added Chou.
Really can’t believe BWF didn’t do anything about this type of controversial call since 2019.
Despite the disappointment in men’s singles, last week’s French Open runners-up and World No. 19 Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han fought hard to beat compatriots World No. 43 Lee Jhe-huei/Yang Po-hsuan 11-21, 21-17, 25-23 for the Hylo Open title.
In women’s doubles, Benyapa Aimsaard/Nuntakarn Aimsaard defeated teammates and No. 1 seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18, 18-21, 21-17 for the Hylo Open title.
Meanwhile, Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto/Lisa Ayu Kusumawati scored the mixed doubles title by defeating Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping of China 21-17, 21-15 while Han Yue saw off Zhang Yi Man 21-18, 21-16 in the women’s singles final.
Full support to Chou Tien Chen and other victims (including Anthony Sinisuka Ginting) of this type of controversial calls from the very unprofessional BWF officials.
