Macau: Shi Yuqi’s bid of winning the 2019 Macau Open came to a stunning end on Sunday as the Chinese No. 1 seed was shocked by No. 5 seed Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand 21-12, 14-21, 7-21 in the Macau Open final at the Tap Seac Multi-Sports Pavilion.
Shi dominated the first set with strong smashes and quick returns that pressured Thammasin to make a lot of mistakes. Shi ended the first set with a cross court drop shot towards Thammasin right front court.
In the second game, Shi Yuqi was struggling and fell behind by 0-4 and 1-7 before narrowing the gap at 11-12. However, the Thai player quickly increased his tempo to widen the gap with 16-11 while Shi failed to reverse the trend and eventually lost the game with 14-21.
Shi looked very discomfort as he was limping on the court and was trailed 2-11 at the mid-game interval of the decider. After the break, Thammasin took full advantage of Shi’s movement problems to walk away with an easy victory. Macau Open was also Thammasin’s first BWF World Tour title of the year.
The men’s doubles final saw No. 8 seeds Liu Cheng/Huang Kai Xiang squandered a 14-7 lead in the decider against No. 1 seed Liu Yu Chen/Li Jun Hui, making uncharacteristic mistakes to allow Liu/Li to tie the match at 20-20 before losing 8-21, 21-18, 20-22. Liu Cheng was issued a red card after the match as he broke his racket in frustration after the loss.
