Calgary: China’s Li Xuerui and Lu Guangzu bagged the women’s singles and men’s singles titles respectively at the Canada Open in Calgary on Sunday.
The London Olympic women’s singles gold medalist and unseeded Li Xuerui finished the week with a sensational win in the Canada Open final. Coming from one game down, the Chinese player beat No. 2 seed Sayaka Takahashi of Japan 22-20, 15-21, 21-17 to win her third title of the season. Li won the China Masters on April 15 and claimed the US Open last Sunday. Also, it was Li’s third victory over Takahashi in their fourth meetings.
In the men’s singles final, Lu Guangzu of China who crashed out in the US Open quarter-finals last week, went into the break of the first game with a 9-11 deficit against Minoru Koga of Japan. Lu then restored himself and reclaimed the lead with an eleventh-point winning streak to overturn the score at 20-13 before winning the first set 21-15. The second game turned to be a one-sided fight as Lu eventually collected the title in 39 minutes by outlasting Koga 21-10 in the second game.
Earlier, the No. 1 seeds men’s doubles pair of Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England enjoyed sweet taste of success when they beat No. 2 seeds Mark Lamsfuss/Marvin Emil Seidel of Germany in three pulsating sets before lifting the Canada Open men’s doubles title with 19-21, 21-18, 22-20 in 70 minutes.
Meanwhile, the women’s doubles final saw No. 1 seeds Ayako Sakuramoto/Yukiko Takahata of Japan sinked unseeded Isabel Herttrich/Carla Nelte of Germany 21-13, 21-15 for the women’s doubles title in 41 minutes.
After losing to Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying at last Sunday’s US Open final, Germany’s No. 2 seeds mixed doubles pair Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich unfortunately has let history to repeat itself by losing to No. 1 seeds Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith of England 21-13, 21-4. The win also allowed Marcus Ellis to win his second title of the day after clinching the men’s doubles title that was held early in the afternoon.
