VICTOR KOREA OPEN Finals - China: 3, Lees: 2, Jung: 1

China came in with one title in hand and three more within reach. Wang Shixian (pictured) won round one with the home team but Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung took their home title back from 2008 champions Fu/Cai and the day capped off with a speedy match that bequeathed to Lee Chong Wei his first ever Korean title.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent, live in Seoul. Photos: Yves Lacroix, BadmintonPhoto (live)

The stands looked much fuller than they had in years on finals day of the 2010 Victor Korea Open Super Series, and the voices and energy of the crowd filled the hall just as the players filled the centre court with the world’s best badminton.

First up was 18-year-old Sung Ji Hyun who, even if she had beaten Yao Jie and Tine Rasmussen en route to the final, came in as a heavy underdog to China Masters Champion Wang Shixian. Playing a top Chinese player for the first time, Sung struggled with errors both in hitting and judging the lines throughout most of the first game as Wang moved her only slightly younger opponent to all four corners of the court at will.

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s for Wang, in comparison with her semi-final against Kim Moon Hi, she was facing a much more formidable opponent: the crowd. That difference became evident early in the second game as, with more than twice the spectators of the previous day and no doubles distractions on the adjacent court, as soon as the home favourite started to pull ahead, the young Chinese ace faced a deafening chorus of “DAE-HAN-MIN-GOOK!!”

The crowd reached a fever pitch when Sung Ji Hyun won two net exchanges to save the first match point and then earn a game point. Still, all ended in disappointment for the partisan crowd and for Sung when the youngster just couldn’t stretch as far as she needed to and Wang finished it in two 21-10, 25-23. Both players are still young enough that this is far from the last chance for Sung to prove herself on the big stage and Wang Shixian, now the proud owner of two Super Series titles, is likely to stand in the way on more than one occasion as the careers of these two youngsters progress.

“The match was so tough so I was very happy to win,” said Wang Shixian after the match. “Sung Ji Hyun and I played in the same junior tournaments in 2008 so I knew who she was. She is very skilled. I played it safe in the second game when it was so tight because I felt like I could win the title and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”

Up next, the men’s doubles was, of course, what the crowd had been waiting for. However, even the home court fans may not have quite realized what a show they were going to get. After all, the last time these two incredible pairs met, Korea got only a post-midnight, delayed broadcast of half the World Championship match in August. The first game was neck-and-neck until the interval and was everything you would expect from the world’s two best men’s doubles pairs. However, the crowd lost none of its exuberance even when the Chinese found it more difficult to mount a resistance and the Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung (pictured above) finished it off by a surprising score of 21-11.

Fu Haifeng had a little altercation with his own racquet after firing a short lift into the net to bring up 6-8 but killing it at the net on the next point seemed to help him get his head back into the game. The Chinese then continued on a romp of their own to a 21-14 victory in the second game.

After another error the put the Koreans up 16-14 in the third, Fu’s racquet went airborne again but although he rebounded by smashing to Lee’s body on the next point, it was Cai Yun who flubbed the next kill opportunity on a desperation lift by a then seated Lee Yong Dae. The Chinese did manage to catch up but never did take the lead in the deciding game while the Koreans never took their foot off the gas pedal and powered to the 21-18 victory and dropped to the floor in elation.

“I think I was even more nervous today playing at home than we were when we played this pair in China last year,” said Jung Jae Sung at the post-match press conference. “So many people were cheering us on to win and I really wanted to win this one in memory of my mother.”

“For me, I would say I was more excited than nervous,” added Lee Yong Dae. “Our styles are so similar that whenever we play Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun, it is always a fun match to play. We had a great match with them at the Sudirman Cup in Guangzhou, too, but this time, since we were at home, the crowd was so excited and it just made me so excited, too.

“In the past, Jae Sung was having to be ready to run the whole court to cover for me so I thought that if I could concentrate on preparing better on defense and creating chances for him, we could achieve some better results.”

The women’s doubles was not quite a cakewalk for China’s Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei (pictured above) but both games saw the score stay close until the Chinese started to open things up just before the interval, leaving Japan’s Mizuki Fujii / Reika Kakiiwa making late, unsuccessful rallies. After seeing the crowd’s support for their men’s doubles team, Zhao and Cheng said they were glad they did not have to face a Korean pair in the final.

Zhao Yunlei is now 2 for 2 in Korea, having won here all of six years ago, at the Asian Junior Championships. However, both Zhao and Cheng complained of the cold, pointing out that it was so cold they could not even go shopping, as they would have liked. In fact, when Zhao was here as a teenager in the summer of 2004, the event was held in rural Hwacheon, so her hopes of hitting Seoul’s markets and department stores would have been thwarted then as well.

The mixed doubles also proceeded without incident. After surprising people all week, the brand-new pairing of Tao Jiaming and Zhang Yawen had no chance of sneaking up on their teammates and training partners. After a four-point run by He Hanbin / Yu Yang in the first game erased Zhang/Tao’s 11-8 lead, the reigning All England champions never again ceded control and finished the match with a 21-16, 21-15 victory.

“The first time I played in Korea, I won the women’s doubles,” said Yu Yang after the match, “and now the second time, I have won the mixed doubles, so I am so happy.

“It’s hard to say what would have happened if Lee/Lee had come through that first round match instead but we knew that if Zhang/Tao had beaten them, they must be playing very well, so we were prepared for the final.”

Surprisingly, the most one-sided match of the day was the men’s singles final, where Peter Gade showed only a shadow of the form that had seen him power to a three-game victory to take his fourth title here last year. Lee Chong Wei (pictured) simply had his way throughout the match and closed it out 21-12, 21-11 in just 34 minutes.

Oddly, just as the players set out for the much more welcoming climes of balmy Kuala Lumpur, the temperature has finally been forecast to climb above the freezing point for the first time in two weeks. But the players will be focussed on the badminton, moreso than the heat, of course, as the much fuller draws in Malaysia will leave no rest for the weary but will provide plenty to watch for KL’s legions of fans.

For complete results from the 2010 Victor Korea Open Super Series, CLICK HERE

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