Continuing her great run of form since returning from injury, Chen Yu Fei of China won the BWF World Tour Super 500 Hong Kong Open title. She won the final against Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-18, 13-21, 21-13. This is the sixth title for the 21-year old Chinese lady, which includes the All England Open title also.
Right from the beginning of the match, Yu Fei was looking in a great rhythm. Her opponent, on the other hand, took time to get going. With her accurate smashes and some errors by Intanon, Chen took a lead which eventually led to her going 1-0 up in the match.
Ratchanok tightened up her game, and raced ahead in the second game. She also started playing those sublime shots which have come to distinguish her game. The Thai player also proved highly successful in net exchanges. As a result, the match got levelled 1-1 and it was anybody's guess who will triumph in the decider.
Initially, it was Ratchanok who got the lead. But Yu Fei raced back to first achieve parity and then get a lead at the mid-game interval. The former World Champion again started to commit some errors while her opponent improved her performance even more.
The All England Champion also unleashed some marvellous shots that seemed to match the skills of her rival. The game was drifting away from Ratchanok and though she did come up with some good smashes, Chen was too far ahead and too dominant to be put off the rails now.
She wrapped up the match in 65 minutes to win her second consecutive title on the World Tour. After last week's resounding victory in the Fuzhou China Open, this title is another confirmation of the emergence of Yu Fei as the new leader of Chinese badminton in women's singles division. She is now the biggest hope for China to regain the Olympic title in this category next year.
