Basel: Top seed Lin Dan put on a masterclass as he exacted sweet revenge on second seed Shi Yuqi with a 21-12, 21-11 victory over his junior in the Swiss Open final. Shi had won their past encounter last week, beating Lin in the All England final 24-22, 21-11.
The clash on Sunday marked an extraordinary comeback for the two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan, who has not played at international tournament for six months after Rio Olympics, before returned to play at German Open in February this year. This was Lin’s third Swiss Open title, after winning the men’s title in 2004 and 2008.
China’s unseeded and World No. 64 Chen Xiaoxin completed a sensational women’s singles final shocker by upsetting No. 3 seed Chen Yufei 21-19, 21-14 on Sunday.
There were also further successes for the Chinese team as they also took home the men’s doubles and women’s doubles titles.
Despite looking sluggish in the first set, top seeds Chai Biao/Hong Wei stormed back from one set down to beat unseeded Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan in the final with a 13-21, 21-16, 21-15 victory.
Women’s doubles No. 1 seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan were unstoppable as they broke Bulgarian sisters – Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva 21-16, 21-15 to walk away with the women’s doubles title.
Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai enjoyed a breakthrough in their career on Sunday after vanquishing Indonesian pair Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto to win the mixed doubles final. The Thailand pair needed 40 minutes to see off the Indonesian duo 21-18 21-15, avenging their 18-21, 19-21 loss to the foes in the second round of Denmark Open last October.
“It’s a huge relief to finally able to win a title after we fell short at our 3 previous finals,” said Dechapol.
Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai had reached the finals of 2016 Korea Masters and 2016 Syed Modi International and the 2017 Thailand Masters prior to winning the Swiss Open.
