Wong Falls To Lee
The unlikely all-Malaysia final in the men’s singles was a reality as 4th seeded Wong Choong Hann defeated Taufik Hidayat in yesterday’s semi final to set up a final against top seed and world #1 Lee Chong Wei in today’s final.
Before the men’s singles, it was an all-Hong Kong women’s singles final between Yip Pui Yin (seeded 3) against Zhou Mi (seeded 2). Both players had came through three-game encounters in the semi final, with Yip Pui Yin defeating top seeded Pi Hongyan to reach the final. The pair shared the opening two games to set up a third game decider, which Zhou Mi lead for the majority of before giving up her lead whilst leading 19-18 in the third and the 3rd seeded brilliantly served out to win the match 21-19 in the final game.
Hendra Setiawan and Markis Kido won the men’s doubles in an all-Indonesian final against Gunawan and Yulianto. After dropping the opening game 21-8, Kido and Setiawan responded by winning the next two games, 21-17, 21-12. There was more Indonesian success in the mixed doubles, with Lahardi and Natsir defeating the 3rd seeded Thai pairing of Sudket and Saralee in three games, winning 13-21, 21-16, 21-17.
Thailand did have one winner, in the women’s doubles as 4th Duanganong and Kunchala defeated the unseeded Malaysian pair of Ng and Ng in three games. Malaysia was guaranteed at least one title, in the men’s singles. Lee Chong Wei was the clear favourite and dominated the opening game, winning it 21-8 before the 4th seed fought back to take the second game 21-14 to set up a deciding game. Wong Choong Hann took a very early lead at 1-0 and would never take the lead again in the deciding game, as Lee Chong Wei had as much as a 10-point lead at one stage, before taking the final game by 21 points to 15.
