French Open: ‘If An Se Young Can, So Can We’
At the end of a rollercoaster final of the YONEX French Open 2024 – one of the great women’s doubles battles of recent times – Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan emerged battle-scarred but victorious, as they have many…
· DEV SUKUMAR
At the end of a rollercoaster final of the YONEX French Open 2024 – one of the great women’s doubles battles of recent times – Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan emerged battle-scarred but victorious, as they have many times before. From coasting along to a seemingly quick victory, and then faced with the prospect of a defeat, and then on to victory in the face of overwhelming odds, the world No.1 pair showed what resilience was all about.
And so it was that Chen and Jia celebrated their second French Open title after rebounding from five match points down against Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida, who were perhaps left wondering what else they had to do to beat the four-time world champions. They were on the brink of a come-from-behind win that would have been their first over Chen and Jia in two years and after six consecutive defeats. It would also have been their first win over their formidable opponents in a final.
It was not to be. The Chinese, all smiles at 10-3 in the second, found themselves faltering in the face of an inspired spell of play by their Japanese opponents. At 20-15 in the third, the wind in the Japanese’s sails had nearly taken them to safe harbour before a last-ditch stand by Chen and Jia blew them off course.