Saarbrucken: Unseeded Malaysian men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi capped their run of upsets with the biggest one of all on Sunday, outlasting No. 8 seeds Michael Fuchs/Johannes Schoettler of Germany 21-16, 21-18 in 40 minutes to win the 2016 Bitburger Open men’s doubles title on Sunday.
Bitburger Open was Ong/Teo’s first career Grand Prix Gold title, and was their fourth title of the year. The World No. 45 Malaysian pair had won Portuguese International, and Romanian International in March of 2016, followed by Vietnam International Challenge in June.
The Bitburger men’s doubles final also has larger meaning on Sunday as this was the last international match for German player Michael Fuchs. The 34-year-old Fuchs officially bid farewell in front of a sold-out crowd at Saarlandhalle arena in Saarbrucken after the Bitburger final. He has won total of 16 career titles, 3 men’s doubles title with Johannes Schoettler and 10 mixed doubles titles Birgit Michels.
Besides men’s doubles, the rest of the Bitburger final results bear a striking resemblance to last week’s French Open finals where China made a clean sweep of all four other categories through the same players.
Women’s doubles No. 1 seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan of China started the finals by knocking out Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai 21-12, 21-19 in 34 minutes to take home the women’s doubles title.
He Bingjiao then continued her country’s domination in women’s singles, easing past No. 4 seeds Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand 21-11, 21-18 in 40 minutes to add Bitburger Open title to her trophy collections in addition to the French Open title she won last week.
20-year-old Shi Yuqi didn’t leave any stone unturned as he smashed, dived and fended off Sourabh Varma of India to clinch his second men’s singles titles in two weeks after winning the French Open last Sunday.
Shi Yuqi took the first set 21-19. Half way through the second set, Varma was given a red card by the umpire without showing any clear violations. Varma did not let that red card affect his performance, instead, he pulled ahead with 20-19, before allowing Shi Yuqi reeled off 3 consecutive points to win 22-20.
No. 2 seeds and reining French Open champions Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen of China continued their sizzling forms to beat No. 1 seeds Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock of England 21-16, 23-21 to win the mixed doubles crown.
