Chen Dashes Thailand’s Hopes – Thailand Open: Finals
It took just one woman to dash the hopes of Thailand’s badminton fans as China’s Chen Yu Fei defeated Ratchanok Intanon 22-20 21-18 in the women's singles final of the TOYOTA Thailand Open 2019.
· GEETHANJALI LAKSHMAYYA
Intanon, the winner here in 2017 and currently ranked No. 7 in the world, said: “I’m not unhappy. Chen performed really well and she was not easy to defeat. She was so calm. I think I did my best but I had some unforced errors. I tried to speed up and push myself but I could not take control.”
Intanon first made headlines as the youngest player to win the World Junior Championships at the age of 14. In 2013, she stole the spotlight again as the youngest winner of the World Championships at 18 years of age.
All England 2019 champion Chen, who has defeated Intanon nine times out of their 11 matches, has been playing consistently high-level badminton these past few weeks and has not dropped a game in this tournament.