China’s Li Xuerui is well on her way back to the top of world badminton after she won her second straight individual tournament following her return to the circuit in April. The 27-year-old beat local girl Beiwen Zhang 24-26, 21-15, 21-11 in the final of the US Open on Sunday.
The 2012 Olympic champion had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear during the Rio Olympics in 2016. She did not play again till the China Masters in April, which she went on to win. Li then represented China in the Uber Cup team championship, where she played two matches, winning one. The US Open was her third tournament following her comeback. The title win will give her ranking 7,000 points.
Li, ranked 141 in the world currently, came through the qualifiers in Fullerton, California, and beat the top three seeds – Zhang, Sayaka Sato and Michelle Li – on her way to the title. In the final, she fought off a narrow loss in the opening game to Zhang, before coming back strongly to beat the India Open champion 24-26, 21-15, 21-11 in an hour.
Korea’s Lee Dong Keun won the men’s singles title – his biggest win since the 2015 Korea Masters – after beating Mark Caljouw 14-21, 21-17, 21-16 in the final. Lee had beaten top seed Lin Dan in the opening round and then survived a difficult semi-final against Thailand’s Khosit Phetpradab, winning 21-19 15-21 21-18. Caljouw head beaten India’s Ajay Jayaram 21-13, 23-21 in the semi-final.
China added a second gold when Tang Jinhua/Yu Xiaohan outplayed Korea’s Kim Hye Jeong/Kim So Yeong 18-21, 21-13, 21-15 in the women’s doubles final. Top seeds Naoko Fukuman/Kurumi Yonao were beaten in the semi-finals by the two Kims 17-21, 21-16, 21-17.
Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying returned to winning ways, capturing the mixed doubles title over Germany’s Marvin Emil Seidel/Linda Efler, 21-19 21-15.
China then won a third title on the day through young men’s doubles duo Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu, who beat Korea’s Kang Min Hyuk/Kim Won Ho in the final 21-17, 21-14.
With inputs from bwfbadminton.com.
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