Japanese shuttler dethrones Sugiarto at Thailand Open

The 22-year-old from Japan’s Shiga prefecture, who won the silver medal in the 2014 Youth Olympics, used his swift returns and quick footwork to bamboozle the Indonesian player who was slowed by a middle finger injury. After they split the first two games, the 33rd-ranked Japanese tightened his play and bombarded Sugiarto with a series of smashes to prevail in 58 minutes. Sugiarto's winning streaks ended at the stadium after he won the Thailand Masters in January.

“After my team won the silver in the Thomas Cup [in May], I’m happy to come back here and win my first Super 500 victory,” said Tsuneyama, the first-ever Japanese man to win the men’s singles title in the 34-year history of the tournament.

Earlier Indonesia caused a big stir in the women’s doubles when the pair of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu upset the 2016 Olympic Games gold medallists Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan 21-12 21-10 to win their second title in Bangkok this year. They had won the Princess Cup in January. They won the title without dropping a game this week.
“I’d like to thank Jesus Christ for giving me strength and I thank my coach for being patient with us. And the fans – chan rak khun mak mak. Jing na. [I love you very much, really],” Polii said after her win.

In the mixed doubles, top seed Chris Adcock and his wife Gabriella of Great Britain were below par as they made a barrage of unforced errors before going down to eighth Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia 21-12 21-12. It was the first title for the Indonesian pair.

“Thank you for support from  Indonesian fans. I’m very happy to win our first title. I’m so excited,” said the 24-year-old Widjaja whose only previous win was with former partner Edi Subaktiar in Macau Open four years ago.

In the men’s doubles final, top seed Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan celebrated their second tile of the year after the Malaysian Open two weeks ago, beating fellow countrymen Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 21-17 21-19.

 “We are happy to win our second title together. We still have to keep working hard and win more,” said the 28-year-old Takeshi from Saga Prefecture.

In a rematch of the 2017 World Championships women’s singles final, fourth seeded Nozomi Okuhara of Japan stamped her authority over world No 3 Sindhu V. Pursula of India with a 21-15 21-18 victory.

“It was a very exciting match and fun for the fans. I’m happy that everyone enjoyed the game. This is a my first win after the World Championships last year,” said the 23-year-old Japanese who loves Thai mangoes.