Paris: It’s been 7 years since they won the 2014 World Championships men’s doubles title in Copenhagen. After that, Korea’s World No. 27 Ko Sung-hyun/Shin Baek-cheol had never again reached the heights they did in 2014.
However, in the 2021 French Open final on Sunday, Ko/Shin showed they’re still a major threat on badminton’s biggest stage by beating World No. 1 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-17, 22-20 to capture their first-ever BWF World Tour Super 750 event.
After winning the first game in 16 minutes, the Korean pair was off to a quick start by leading 6-2, 14-10 over Gideon/Sukamuljo in the second. Right after the mid-game interval, Ko Sung-hyun suddenly looked tired and started making easy mistakes and the Indonesians took advantage of this to lead 17-15. At 20-20, Sukamuljo failed to return a strong smash from Shin to give the Korean pair a one-point advantage at 21-20 before Gideon hit the shuttlecock out of bound to give Ko/Shin their match-point.
In addition to men’s doubles, Korea also picked up the women’s doubles title through defending champions – Lee Sohee/Shin Seungchan when they defeated compatriots Kim Soyeong/Kong Heeyong 21-17, 21-12. Lee/Shin also won the 2019 edition by overcoming the same opponents in the 2019 final with 16-21, 21-19, 21-12.
In men’s singles, World No. 13 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan pulled off an upset to down World No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan 15-21, 21-8, 21-17 to become the first Japanese men’s singles player to ever win the French Open title.
“I am really happy to become the first Japanese men’s singles player to win this tournament. I’m still can’t believe I did it,” said Tsuneyama.
Meanwhile, Chou remained thankful even after the loss.
“I didn’t expect to be able to go all the way to the final. Thank God for allowing me to make new progress. No matter which place I got, God gave me the result, so I’m just trying to do my best when I am on the badminton court,” said Chou.
This was Chou’s second defeat to the Japanese in their seventh career meeting.
After last week’s triumphs at the Denmark Open, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi and Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino continued to gain momentum and broke their respective opponents in the French Open finals to win their second women’s singles and mixed doubles title respectively in two consecutive weeks.
