Dubai: No. 2 seed Kento Momota brought Viktor Axelsen’s great run at the 2015 Dubai World Superseries Finals to an end by clinching the men’s singles title in Dubai on Sunday.
Momota had met Axelsen in their last men’s singles Group B match on Friday, where Momota fought back from a set down to dispatch the No. 4 seed Axelsen 19-21, 21-15, 21-15.
While Axelsen was expected to rebound and to exact his revenge on Momota in the men’s final, it turned out to be a one-sided battle. Kento Momota started like a train to build a massive 11-8 lead in the first set and never looked back, winning the first set 21-15.
Momota put even more pressure on Axelsen in the second set, and Dane was clearly struggled to adjust to Momota’s rhythm. At 10-8, the Kento Momota went on a rampage attack to reel off eight straight points to effectively put an end to Axelsen’s hopes of coming back. The Japanese eventually sealed the deal by taking second set 21-12.
It’s worth mentioning that 2015 marked a major breakthrough year for Kento Momota as he finished the best season of his career with three Superseries titles including the World Superseries Finals, Indonesia Open and Singapore Open.
In the men’s doubles final, Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia continued their dominance against Chai Biao/Hong Wei of China, winning in three sets 13-21, 21-14, 21-14.
Ahsan/Setiawan made a lot of unforced errors to lose the first game 13-21. The Indonesians then corrected their problems and were able to force the Chinese pair to succumb to their superiority by claiming the second set 21-14. Ahsan/Setiawan took complete control in the decider with a 21-14 victory.
Nozomi Okuhara made it a double joy for the Japanese camp at the BWF World Superseries Finals, when the No. 4 seed Okuhara overcame No. 3 seed Wang Yihan from China 22-20, 21-18 in an hour and three minutes in the women’s singles final.
The 20-year-old Okuhara broke out in tears when she completed the match after one hour and three minutes.
“These were tears of happiness, it was a really hard match,” said Okuhara.
Meanwhile, Chinese twin shuttlers Luo Ying and Luo Yu overcame Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl from Denmark to win the women’s doubles crown. The Chinese pair were leading 14-21, 21-9, 14-4 when the Danish pair was forced to retire in the third due to stomach problems from Pedersen.
In the mixed double final, England’s husband-and-wife badminton duo, Chris and Gabriele Adcock dismissed Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na from South Korean with 21-14, 21-17 in 37 minutes to claim the World Superseries Finals title.
