Taipei Open Badminton Tournament

 Sunday August 30, 2009  - At the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold tournament on the weekend, Taiwan came away with its best performance in a major international tournament yet.  Cheng Shao-chieh won the women's singles title after she came away with a  17-21, 21-12, 21-15 victory over Korean shuttler Bae Seung Hee.  "Cheng said to reporters that her ordeal proved that the opportunity is always left for those who are ready and those who never quit."  She had contemplated with the idea of retiring after a poor performance at the 2008 Olympics.  But the determined Cheng stuck with it and had to win eight rounds in a row to get to the badminton championship this year.
 
In the men's final it was Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh (at left) who was victorious over Malaysian Wong Choong Hann in a straight set 11-21, 14-21 final.  Tien Minh earned almost $13,000 U.S. and 7,000 BWF ranking points.  He is the only player to Vietnam to ever crack the top 100, and because of this victory he is ranked tenth overall.  Choong Hann had knocked off Taufik Hidayat in the semi-final yesterday to reach the finals.  This is Hann's second tournament in a row where he had to settle with second place.  He lost to Lee Chong Wei at the Macau Open just a short week ago.
 
Taiwan also won the men's doubles event, Chen Hong-lin and Lin Yu-lang won in three sets 14-21, 21-12, 21-19 against Wong Wai-hong and Yohan Handikusuma from Hong Kong.  The women's doubles title went to China as Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen beat Vita Marissa and Mona Santosa  21-14, 21-9.
 
Mixed doubles had India celebrating when Valiyaveetil Diju and Jwala Gutta beat the Indonesians Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Vita Marissa 23-21, 21-18 in a close match.  Badminton Association of India president VK Verma said, "This is a very good news for India. This is the first time that any doubles pair of India have won a grand prix gold event."  Last month it was also the first time an Indian pair had reached the quarter-finals at the world championships in a mixed doubles event.   
 

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