Bangkok: Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong will have to wait another tournament to win their third title of the year, as the former World No. 1 took the match all the way to its limit only to fall short on Sunday against No. 5 seeds Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pankaryanira/Ade Yusuf of Indonesia in three-sets.
Koo/Tan started strong in the first set, fought back from 19-20 to force a deuce at 20-20 before beating the Indonesians 22-20.
The Malaysian pair wasted a match point at 20-19 in the second set, allowing Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pankaryanira/Ade Yusuf to reel off two points to win the second set 23-21 and to force the decider.
The unseeded Malaysians looked a little drained out at the end of third set as they were racking up unforced error after unforced error to eventually lose the decider to the Indonesians 16-21.
35-year-old No. 4 seed Lee Hyun Il of Korea showed his experience, claimed a hard-fought win over Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia in the men’s singles final. The age-defying Korean veteran took advantage of the shift in momentum to dispatch his 19-year-old opponent 21-17, 22-24, 21-8 in 58 minutes.
Unseeded mixed doubles pair Choi Solgyu/Eom Hye Won of Korea pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament on Sunday when they overcame a tough challenge from No. 3 seeds Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto to bag the mixed doubles crown with a 21-19, 17-21, 21-16 victory.
Singaporean Liang Xiaoyu’s Cinderella run in the tournament was halted by No. 2 seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the women’s singles final. Sung needed only 37 minutes to beat Liang 21-11, 21-14.
Huang Dongping/Li Yinhui of China and Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee of Korea were engaged in a hard fought battle that lasted three sets but Huang/Li eventually came out on top, winning the women’s doubles final 20-22, 21-11, 21-15.
