Korea Open GP Gold: Sung Ji Hyun tames Li Han to grab Women’s Singles crown
Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun cheers the local crowd by winning the Women’s Singles crown after crushing China’s Li Han in the final contest of the 2011 Korea Open GP Gold, on Sunday, December 11, in Korea.
The second seed of the tournament, Ji Hyun, who is currently placed at number 12 in the Women’s Singles world rankings, displayed phenomenal performance in the final match of the tournament. She showed no mercy to Han and won the battle in straight games
by taking just 55 minutes in the court.
The first set was mouth-watering when both ladies played fast and positive badminton. However, it was the higher ranked Korean who took the game in the end with a decent score. In the second set of this final match, Han completely failed to match the speed
of her opponent and lost the game with a five-point difference.
The opening set of the match was quite interesting when the Chinese shuttler played with aggression to put pressure on her local opponent. Nevertheless, the Korean tackled the aggression of her rival in a superb way as she showed no sign of confusion and
remained composed in the opening set of the match. Ji Hyun was slightly ahead of the Chinese until the break in the first game.
After the interval, the Chinese tried to dominate the rallies but her opponent was also playing positive and fast badminton. The score progressed closely until the ending stage when Ji Hyun played a few killing strokes to take the set with a 21-18 score
on the board.
In the second game of the title match, the opening rallies were fast when both shuttlers tried to take an early lead. Han faced trouble in returning the perfectly executed fast drop shots. Ji Hyun remained successful in getting a strong position in the opening
half of the game.
The Korean remained on the right track after the break and found no resistance to take the second set with a comfortable margin of 21-16. Ji Hyun ended up the match in 44 minutes in straight games with a margin of 21-18 and 21-16.
Tags: