Saarbrucken: Women’s singles No. 2 seed Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand became the fifth player to ever reach the final of a same Grand Prix Gold tournament for 3 or more times and walked away with her second Bitburger Open title on Sunday. The 2017 Bitburger was also her first final since she was defeated by He Bingjiao of China 11-21, 18-21 in the same final last year.
Jindapol was trailing most of the game in the first set, but started hitting the shuttlecocks with more ferocity, and reeled off six straight points to come from 15-17 to take the first set 21-17 against No. 1 seed Zhang Beiwen of USA.
Zhang started perfectly in the second set and kept the pressure on to clinch the game 21-15.
The decider was another high-quality, seesaw affair between the two, where Zhang clawed back from 6-12 to tie the game at 19-19. However, Jindapol held her nerve and was able to secure the 2017 Bitburger Open title by winning the third set 21-19 after Zhang’s baseline return was out of bound. Jindapol who also won the 2013 Bitburger Open, pocketed USD $9,000 for her victory.
Thailand also enjoyed a weekend to remember as their second seeded women’s doubles pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai outlasted Akane Araki/Aoi Matsuda 21-19, 21-6 to lift the title.
In men’s singles, unseeded Rasmus Gemke of Denmark continued his dominant run of form in beating No. 4 seed Hsu Jen Hao of Taiwan 21-18, 21-10 to win his second international title of his career. The 20-year-old Gemke beat Yu Igarashi of Japan 21-17, 21-18 to win the 2017 Finnish Open in April.
