Li Xuerui stuns Wang Yihan to win Women’s Singles crown at Badminton Asia Championships 2012
China’s young shuttler Li Xuerui displayed her magical skills in the court when she toppled her higher ranked team-mate Wang Yihan in the title match and won the Women’s Singles crown at Badminton Asia Championships 2012 on Sunday, April 22, in China.
The in-form Xuerui, who is World Number Four at the moment, has been playing tremendous badminton for the last few months and continued her roller-coaster performance in the final of Asia Championships as well.
The fourth seeded Xuerui delivered superb performance in the final contest and thrashed her higher ranked opponent Yihan, who is currently World Number 1 in Women’s Singles world rankings.
The lower ranked Chinese shuttler played smart badminton and overpowered her team-mate in an entertaining contest that took three games of 55 minutes.
On the other hand, Yihan could not live up to expectations as she could not handle the pressure of being top seed in the tournament and lost to her lower ranked compatriot in three sets.
In the opening set, Xuerui was the first to control the pace of rallies and she played with impressive maturity.
The powerful strokes of Yihan landed in right areas and she managed to take a reasonable lead until the break.
After the interval, Yihan tried to manipulate the loopholes of her tame-mate but failed to dominate the pace.
In the meanwhile, Xuerui continued her impressive proceeding and took the opening set with a remarkable margin of 21-16.
In the second game, Yihan played positive game this time as she played with control this time and managed to dictate the pace of rallies. However, both ladies were close on the board until the break.
After the interval, Xuerui tried to dominate the pace of rallies but she failed to dictate her higher ranked rival this time and lost the set with a 16-21 score on the board.
In the deciding set, Xuerui was on a different level as she played with impressive precision and managed to set up a huge lead until the break.
After the interval, Xuerui continued playing fabulous game and remained successful in winning the deciding set with a one-sided score of 21-9.
Xuerui won her first title in Asia Championships on home soil by beating Yihan with a 21-16, 16-21 and 21-9 score on the board.
Tags: