Bali, (Samajweekly) Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen and South Korea’s An Seyoung clinched the 2021 Indonesia Open men’s and women’s singles titles, here on Sunday.
Axelsen, who clinched gold at Tokyo 2020 — was challenged by Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew as he extended the match to three games, but in the end, the Dane sealed a 21-12, 9-21, 21-13 victory in 59 minutes.
The 27-year-old got off to a better start, cruising to a relatively easy win in the first game. However, the 24-year-old Loh fired back and won the second game.
The third and deciding game proved to be a closely-contested affair, but the reigning Olympic champion took an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval. Loh tried hard to close the gap but Axelsen held on and wrapped up the match to clinch his second Super 1000 title of the season, having won the Denmark Open in October.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Seyoung picked up her second World Tour title in as many weeks after beating Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the women’s singles final, 21-17, 22-20.
The 19-year-old, who is ranked sixth in the world, added to her Indonesia Masters 2021 title which she won last week by defeating Japan’s Yamaguchi Akane.
In the women’s doubles final, the home favourites for the title – Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu went down to Matsuyama Nami and Shida Chiharu.
The Japanese duo became the second to win back-to-back titles in Bali when they beat the reigning Olympic champions, 21-19, 21-19 in a closely fought match. Matsuyama and Shida also won the Indonesia Masters 2021 title the previous weekend.
On the other hand, mixed doubles top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai made it a hat-trick of double victories in Bali when they easily clinched victory in their final against Japan’s Watanabe Yuta and Higashino Arisa.
The Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists were unable to keep pace with the Thai pair, who led from start to finish in both games to take the victory (21-12, 21-13). The victory was sweet revenge for the Thais who lost to their opponents in the final of the Denmark Open in October.
Puavaranukroh and Taerattanachai pick up their third title of the season, having won the Indonesia Masters last week and the Hylo Open prior to arriving in Bali.
In the men’s doubles, the world number one pairing of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo clinched victory on home soil after they defeated Japan’s Hoki Takuro and Kobayashi Yugo in straight games, 21-14, 21-18.
The Indonesians avenged their defeat in last week’s Indonesia Masters final when they narrowly lost to the Japanese pair in a three-game thriller.
This was Gideon and Sukamuljo’s third consecutive Indonesian Open title, having won in 2018 and 2019 with no event being held last year.
