Taiwan’s badminton players dominated the final day of the Sydney International on Sunday to claim all five titles, with Sung Shuo-yun (宋碩芸) winning both the women’s singles and doubles.
A week after upsetting former world No. 1 Carolina Marin in the semifinals at the Canada Open and achieving a career-best second place in a BWF Super Series event, the world No. 58 Sung stayed hot this week as she took the Netball Central venue by storm.
Sung showed why she was the top seed in women’s singles as she did not surrender a single game in the tournament until losing the first game 17-21 in the final against fellow Taiwanese Chen Su-yu (陳諭).
Undeterred, Sung outplayed Chen to win the last two games 21-16 and 21-14 to conclude their 58-minute match and win the women’s singles.
The gold medal was huge for Sung as it put an end to a nearly three-year title drought after she won her first international title in women’s singles at the 2019 Norwegian International.
After taking a short break, Sung and partner Yu Chien-hui (余芊慧) topped another Taiwanese duo, Chang Ching-hui (張淨惠) and Yang Ching-tun (楊景忳), to capture the women’s doubles title 21-16, 21-11.
Meanwhile, the tournament’s No. 2 men’s seed Lin Chun-yi (林俊易) won the men’s singles by beating Singapore’s Jia Wei Joel Kol (許家維) 21-11, 12-21, 21-10 in the final.
The win marked the third consecutive title for Lin, who also claimed tournament victories at the Mongolia International and Belgian International. He is currently on a 16-match winning streak.
Brother duo Lee Fang-jen (李芳任) and Lee Fang-chih (李芳至) won the men’s doubles, while Chen Xin-yuan (陳信遠) and Yang Ching-tun (楊景忳) captured the mixed doubles, completing a sweep for Taiwanese players at the tournament.
Sydney International is part of the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) Future Series, the lowest tier of tournament on the professional badminton tour where young players try to accumulate ranking points to eventually compete at higher levels of competition.
Each title winner in Sydney won US$550 and 1,700 ranking points, according to the rules set by the BWF.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel