On April 10, Beijing time, the BWF Super Series Korea Open ended in Suncheon. In the men's singles final, Weng Hongyang, a Young Chinese player who participated in the high-level tour for the first time, staged a big reversal, defeating the 2018 Asian Games champion and Indonesia's famous Jonatan 2-1, breaking the "championship drought" of the nearly 900-day tour for the national men's singles.
Image source: BWF official Weibo
Weng Hongyang, who is less than 23 years old, is currently ranked only 156th in the world, because a large number of players have withdrawn from the competition, and he has not gone to Europe with the "big troops" to compete in the competition, and he has received a temporary notice to rush from the Jinjiang training base to South Korea. Before the game, Weng Hongyang said that he did not know whether he could successfully qualify for the bench when he set out. When he confirmed that he could compete as a substitute, Weng Hongyang was very excited - this was his first time to participate in the Super 500 Tour.
On the field, Weng Hongyang also cherished the hard-won opportunity, holding the mentality of impact to fight every opponent and winning consecutive battles. In the first round, he defeated South Korea's first singles player Heo Woo-hee, who often plays the "dark horse", in two straight sets, showing a good state. In the next two rounds, he successively shot Down Malaysia's Zhan Junwei and Huang Zhiyong. In the semi-finals, facing Denmark's Svenson, the national youngster overcame the difficulties of the unfavorable start and defeated the opponent 22-20, 21-13.
Image source: The official Weibo of the Chinese badminton team
In the final on the 10th, Weng Hongyang ushered in a tough battle, challenging jonathan, the no. 3 seed and the eighth in the world. The latter has been in good shape recently, just breaking the "championship drought" of nearly three years at the Swiss Open at the end of last month, and eliminating two good players in Quinravuut and Slicante in the promotion process. In the face of a fierce opponent who had never fought before, Weng Hongyang dared to fight and staged a big reversal of 12-21, 21-19, and 21-15. Among them, in the second set, Weng Hongyang fell behind 15-19 at one point. But he did not give up, scoring 6 consecutive points to save the decline, but also opened the door to victory.
This is also the first time that a Chinese men's singles player has won the championship on the tour in 896 days. In October 2019, Chen Long successfully defended his title by winning consecutive victories over "Indonesia's double males" Quintin and Jonathan in the French Open. This time, Weng Hongyang not only participated in the high-level tour for the first time, but also broke the "championship drought" of nearly 900 days in the men's singles of the national feather.
Guo Yu had a total of 5 singles players and a mixed doubles combination this time, but no one except Weng Hongyang advanced to the final four. Men's singles newcomer Li Shifeng and women's singles three-timers Chen Yufei, Wang Zhiyi and Han Yue all stopped the first two rounds, and the mixed doubles new combination Ou Xuanyi/Huang Yaqiong, who won only one game after the first round of bye, stopped in the 1/4 final.