Paris: The match of the final day of the French Open was clearly the debut of An Se Young, who has won her first BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament at the tender age of 17.
Last week, against the same opponent, An Se Young lost to Carolina Marin of Spain 21-18, 19-21, 18-21 in the Denmark Open quarter-final.
Little did she know that on the final day of the French Open a week later, she would be beating the same opponent 16-21, 21-18, 21-5 in 69 minutes.
An was no match to Marin in the first set, but started playing quick cross court attacks, and overhead smashes to win the second set.
Seeing how she played, reminded me of Lee Chong Wei, her speed, her cross court attacks and how she was diving to reach for shuttlecock bears a close resemblance to the badminton legend from Malaysia.
The Korean teenager was just too strong in the decider, returning pretty much every shot from Marin, which caused Marin to feel frustrated and started to make a lot of mistakes that ultimately allowed An to race to the finish line and won her first every Super 750 title with a quick cross court smash towards Marin’s left hand side.
Meanwhile, Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan and Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong have put a stop to Japan’s domination in women’s doubles event, setting up an all-Korean final on Sunday. The No. 5 seeds Lee/Shin were able to exact revenge on their loss to Kim/Kong in the Korean Open final last month, beating the No. 8 seeds 16-21, 21-19, 21-12 in 78 minutes.
