Birdievents.com

Chong Wei reserved his seventh title of the year and 39th of his career today by winning 2011 French Open. Chong Wei denied Japan’s Kenichi Tago with a devastating 21-16, 21-11 victory in 39 minutes.

It was his eighth victory over Tago from as many matches and the second time Chong Wei has defeated the Japanese ace in a Superseries final, the first coming in last year’s All England tournament in Birmingham.

It was also belated birthday present for the Malaysian, who turned 29 on Oct 21. His victory in Paris means he has now won an incredible 20 Superseries titles from 48 such tournaments since 2007.

Chong Wei won three Superseries titles in 2007, twice more in 2008, four times in 2009, six in 2010 and so far in 2011, he has won in Malaysia, England, India, Indonesia and France, with two more OSIM BWF World Superseries events next month in Hong Kong and China.

His other two titles in 2011 came at the BWF Super Series Finals 2010 which was played in January and the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold in May. He also won his National Grand Prix title for the 10th consecutive time last month.

On Sunday, Tago tried to match Chong Wei’s aggression but found it difficult to crack his opponent’s defense. He managed to stay in the game until 12-12, only for Chong Wei to up the pace and win nine of the next 13 points.

Tago was the aggressor once again in the second game and took a 5-3 lead when once again, the world No. 1 found several extra gears in his arsenal to zoom ahead, winning 14 of the next 15 points, including nine straight unanswered winners to take a 17-6 lead.

Chong Wei then eased off the gas, allowing Tago to win another five points before he wrapped up the match.

It was the peak of the 2011 French Open.  Many people still could not believe the number one player in the world could lost so easy to second tier player, Chen Long from China.  The tragic was even more convincing in which Chen Long beat Lee Chong Wei in straight set last week in 2011 Denmark Open.  This evening the fierce battle began again between this two ultimate show down.  However, this time Lee Chong Wei showed his supremacy by winning the match with the score of 23-21 17-21 21-15.

On the other court, another exciting match was also happening between Kenichi Tago (Japan) and Lin Dan (China). Lin Dan was leading Japan’s Kenichi Tago 25-23, 18-15 when he injured himself, thus handing an unexpected final appearance to the former All England finalist

This is the fifth time in the past 10 months that the reigning Olympic and Asian Games gold medalist has had to concede a walkover or retire hurt in OSIM BWF World Super Series tournaments.

Lin Dan’s run of bad luck began last December when he withdrew from the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong and China Opens just before playing Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh and Chen Long respectively.

Then in January, he pulled out of the Proton Malaysia Open Super Series with an abdominal muscle injury when he was due to play Chen Long.

The biggest blow came in the final of the Singapore in June when he had to hand the title to teammate Chen Jin as he felt ill after drinking too much cold water after his semi-final victory over Peter Gade.

Last month, at the Japan Open, the skin of his left foot came off after a tough match against Chen Jin and Lin Dan had to give a walkover to Chen Long in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, China will keep the women’s singles and doubles title after dominating the semi-finals of both events.

In the women’s singles, world No. 3 Wang Xin, who is chasing back-to-back Super Series titles, came back from an opening game loss to defeat Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk.

Porntip, who won her country’s first ever women’s singles Superseries title when she won the India Open in May, stunned her Chinese opponent with a 21-15 victory in the opening game.

However, that win took a lot out of Porntip and she was a spent force as Wang Xin cruised to the next two games, winning 21-4, 21-7 to book her ticket to the final.

Waiting for her in Sunday’s title decider is Li Xuerui, who ousted giantkiller Tai Tzu Ying in straight games. Tzu Ying, who defeated world No. 1 and world champion Wang Yihan in the quarter-finals, had no answer to Li Xuerui’s attacking play and fell 21-8, 21-19.

Her victory meant China will win the women’s singles title for the ninth time in 10 OSIM BWF World Superseries tournaments this year. The only time they missed out was at the India Open which they didn’t enter.

Likewise, Chinese women have won the doubles crown eight times out of the nine previous Superseries tournaments and on Saturday, world champions Wang Xiaoli-Yu Yang and Tian Qing-Zhao Yunlei made sure the crown will stay in Chinese hands when they won their respective semi-final matches.

Wang Xiaoli-Yu Yang, survived a wobble in the second game before beating Japanese third seeds Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa 21-8, 22-20. Tian Qing-Zhao Yunlei, meanwhile, received a walkover from South Korea’s Ha Jung Eun-Kim Min Jung.