Taipei: No. 1 seed Chou Tien Chen bounced back from dropping a set to beat compatriot Wang Tzu-Wei at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Chinese Taipei Open final in front of a home crowd on Sunday.
Chou who defeated China’s Qiao Bin 21-18, 21-17 to win the title last year, survived a stern test from Wang before emerging with an 18-21, 21-19, 21-15 victory in a 77 minutes battle.
“Wang is getting stronger and has unleashed a lot of fierce attacks today, he got off to a quick 9-3 lead in the first set, and I had to make some adjustments in the second and third,” said Chou.
After his thrilling three-set victory, Chou told reporters that he felt extremely encouraging to see Wang has grown to be one of the top men’s singles player.
“I’m glad to see the drastic improvement in Wang’s game. I embrace the competition between two of us, and hope we could have more local shuttlers to help improve Taiwan’s overall ranking in the sport of badminton,” praised Chou.
In the all-Taiwanese men’s doubles final, No. 2 seeds Chen Hung Ling/Wang Chi-lin took advantage of unforced errors from No. 1 seeds Lee Jhe-huei/Lee Yang at the end of second set to beat the top seeds 21-16, 22-20.
“I’m would like to thank Chen to be able to hold on to the attacks from our opponents when my energy was fading at the end of second set,” said Wang Chi-lin.
Wang who also paired with Lee Chia-hsin in the mixed doubles final, lost the match to South Korean duo Seo Seung-jae and Kim Ha-na prevailed with 20-22, 10-21.
