MALAYSIA OPEN Finals – Four #1s title in KL

at the 2023 Malaysia Open.

Story: Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent live in Kuala Lumpur
Photos: Yves Lacroix and Erika Sawauchi for Badmintonphoto (live)

It was a day dominated by the top seeds in Axiata Arena on Sunday. In the first four matches of the day, the world #1s held court and took the titles they rightfully deserved. Only women’s singles World Champion Akane Yamaguchi was even forced to play a third game.

The most dominant top seeds of all the disciplines were up first. Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong may be the only one of the four who won the World Championships and World Tour Finals but not the All England but they were also the only ones to win ten tournaments in 2022.

They came up in the final against Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino, the last pair to beat the mighty Chinese, a feat they accomplished at the Japan Open.

The Japanese pair had a great start, getting out to a promising 12-8 lead in the opener but Zheng and Huang soon turned things around and in the second game, they never allowed their opponents to lead.

“This is the first tournament of 2023 so winning the title here gives us a lot of confidence,” said Zheng Siwei afterward.

Zheng was adamant that the match was not easy, despite the point margin: “Definitely not. They are one of the best pairs in the worlds. In the second game, we got a lot of points but it was definitely not easy so we really respect them.

“We need to have a lot of patience when we play them because they move well and have good defense. We have to be extremely patient.”

Huang Yaqiong added that all the top players they play are very close in terms of their skill level so it may be the subtler details that determine who wins in a match, such as how well they communicate on court.

Asked whether they fancied their chances at back-to-back titles with their trip to India next week, Zheng chuckled and said, “We haven’t even thought about that. We are just focussing on having a fast recovery before we play in India.”

“We didn’t have the speed we needed”

Fellow Olympic silver medallists Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan spent slightly more time on court but won by even more convincing scores. It was their third match against Korea’s fourth-ranked women’s doubles pair and the first to not go the full distance.

After their semi-final, Baek Ha Na and Lee Yu Lim said they planned to win on fitness but it didn’t work out that way. They led on exactly one rally and throughout the second game, it appeared that it was the Chinese who were relying on their defense to dare the Koreans to attack and to tire their opponents into submission.

“We did want to make it a contest of fitness but we got the impression that our opponents had analysed our play very well,” said Baek Ha Na after the match. “We tried to play an endurance game but so did our opponents and they did it better. We didn’t expect it to be quite this difficult but the Chinese pair also seemed intent on keeping the rallies long and of course, they have the power and our defense wasn’t good enough.

“I’m not exactly sure why but we felt really heavy out there and didn’t have the speed that we needed.”

Lee Yu Lim added, “We found ourselves under a lot of pressure defensively so we found it difficult to create the attacking opportunities when we wanted to.”

Asked for their feelings on how satisfying a start it was to the season, Baek said, “It really is disappointing. We didn’t come here expecting to reach the final but on the other hand, we don’t know when we’ll get another opportunity to play in a final and we really wanted to make the most of it. Last year, too, we reached some finals but we were unable to win any titles. Also because it was the first tournament of the year, we really wanted to start off with a title, so it is a disappointment but it’s still not too bad.”

Akane in three

Korea’s An Se Young came out strong in her opening game with two-time World Champion Akane Yamaguchi and looked set to score the first upset of the afternoon. But although in both the first and second games, she caught Yamaguchi at 8-all, in the second she was never able open up a lead and although she stayed close, she couldn’t force a match point.

In the deciding game, An kept it close early on but soon showed she was really feeling the pace and toward the end of the game, she looked very stiff and often ended the rallies doubled over with tired legs.

After the match, she said, “Of course, I wanted to win it in two games but Yamaguchi is a really experienced and skilled player. She suddenly upped the pace and I just didn’t have the endurance to keep up. I wasn’t out of breath or anything but my body just felt too heavy for me to move well enough.

“I think since I joined the national team, this is still the first time I’ve had a really good start to a season. I mean, it wasn’t the best possible outcome but it was still pretty good and I would say it has given me the confidence that this is going to be a really good year.

“It’s going to be a long haul playing through to the end of the Indonesia Masters but feeling as I do here in Malaysia, I think I really feel ready to try hard and enjoy the next two tournaments. Of course, it will be nice if I can win in the next two weeks but I have to be reasonable in my expectations and concentrate on enjoying the matches.”

Yamaguchi commented on how proud she was to take the Malaysia Open women’s singles title for Japan, the first time in 55 years the title has gone to a player from the island nation.

Axelsen repeats

The fourth final of the day went, as expected, to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. He beat Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in straight games to add this year’s to the Malaysia Open title he won here last year. Overall, it is his third title in the Axiata Arena, as his first one here was at the 2018 Malaysia Masters Super 500 event.

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