Badminton no. 1 An gets Olympics boost with Singapore win

SINGAPORE: World number one An Se-young received a timely confidence boost ahead of the Olympic Games by beating China´s Chen Yufei to retain her Singapore Badminton Open women´s singles title on Sunday.

With the Paris showpiece starting next month, the South Korean was delighted to have found winning form again after a right-knee injury had sidelined her for more than a month.

“This is indeed a timely boost for my confidence before the Olympics,” An said after beating Chen 21-19, 16-21, 21-12.

“There were a lot of question marks raised over my form when I went through those hard times. “But I´m very grateful to my team for also believing in me and our efforts have paid off,” she said.

The match was a repeat of last year´s Asian Games final, where An also prevailed against the Olympic gold medallist, and the 22-year-old again met stiff resistance from Chen. An clinched the first game in 25 minutes but Chen fought back to win the second, before the defending champion´s aggression and deft cross-court play sealed another victory.

World number two Shi Yuqi fought back after dropping the first game to defeat Chinese compatriot Li Shifeng 17-21, 21-19, 21-19 in the men´s singles final.