Guangzhou: China’s top women’s singles shuttler Chen Yu Fei not only celebrated her 7th title of 2019 on Sunday after defeating Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 12-21, 21-12, 21-17 to win the 2019 BWF World Tour Finals, she would also finish the year as No. 1 in the world after BWF release its season-closing rankings next Tuesday.
The last time any Chinese women’s singles player had occupied the world’s top spot was on June 2015, when Li Xuerui ranked first in the world in the first week of June 2015. But in the second week of June 2015, Spanish player Carolina Marin jumped to the first position, while Li Xuerui slipped to World No. 3. No one has expected that no other Chinese women’s singles player could capture the World No. 1 ranking until 4 years and 6 months later.
Li Xuerui was also the last Chinese women’s singles player to win the BWF year-end event in 2013, where Li defeated Tai Tzu Ying, becoming the first female player who managed to defend the BWF Finals title.
In women’s doubles final, home shuttlers and World No. 1 Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan overcame World No. 3 Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara of Japan for the title.
“They are very aggressive, therefore, we didn’t give them any chance to attack. Otherwise, we’ll lose the game if they started attacking,” said Chen after the match.
In a rematch of last year’s final, this time, Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong walked away with victory as they battled past defending champions Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping 21-14, 21-14.
