Fuzhou: Denmark’s No. 4 seeds Jan O Jorgensen shocked the home crowd when he held off a stirring comeback from Chen Long in the first set as the second seed Chen came agonizingly close to taking the first set from 17-20 to 20-20 before Jorgensen restored his control to clinch the first set 22-20.
The World and Olympic champion Chen Long was meek, and sluggish in the second set. Jorgensen took full advantage of uncharacteristically error-prone performance of Chen to surge to 21-13 victory in the second set to win his first individual Superseries title of the year at the China Open after he helped Denmark to win their historic Thomas Cup title in Kunshan, China in May.
Jorgensen’s last Superseries title was back in 2014, where he took the Indonesia Open. He was beaten by Lee Chong Wei in the men’s singles final at Japan Open’s in September, lost to Shi Yuqi in the first round of Denmark Open and went down to Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong at French Open few weeks ago.
“It’s really a breakthrough for me today. I was in the China Open final 7 years ago, but lost to Lin Dan. I am really happy to win the China Open today, not to mention finally beating Chen Long at his home turf,” said Jorgensen.
“Chen Long has been very stable and is very tough to beat. I had to stay calm, relax and focused all the time. Perhaps Chen Long was not at his best, but I must give myself a big credit for the victory,” added Jorgensen.
Chen Long also admitted he felt bad for missing the title at his home court.
“This was my first tournament after Rio Olympic. I’m happy to be able to make it all the way through the final,” said Chen.
In the men’s doubles final, Indonesian pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo outlasted No. 4 seeds Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark 21-18, 22-20 in 49 minutes for the men’s doubles crown.
Besides men’s singles and men’s doubles, for the first time in the China Open’s 30-year history, Chinese shuttlers had missed all three other titles in on Sunday.
