World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei lived the dream to secure his first All England title on Sunday with a 21-19, 21-19 victory over unseeded Japanese Kenichi Tago.
“It’s a big relief and big dream fulfilled especially as this is the 100th All England championships,” he told reporters.
The Malaysian lost out in last year’s final to world and Olympic champion Lin Dan, but Lin exited this time around in the quarter-finals, easing the way for his old rival.
Chong Wei, who has a poor record against four-times All England winner Lin, said: “I thought this was my best chance when he got knocked out.”
However, he still had to fight hard against Tago, who had earlier beaten top Chinese talent Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai to become the first Japanese to reach the men’s singles final since 1966.
Tago led 4-0 in the first set and 15-11 later on before Chong Wei finally nosed ahead at 16-15. Though Tago managed to save three set points, he finally yielded at 21-19.
In the second, the Malaysian led 6-1 and 11-7, but the tough Japanese leveled at 14-14. Tago saved two match points before a final shuttle from Chong Wei landed just in the baseline to secure the triumph.
“He’s a very good, strong opponent, one to watch out for,” Chong Wei said.
Disappointed Tago, 20, whose mother was an All England doubles finalist 30 years ago, said: “I think my lack of experience at such a big tournament may have told.”
Tine Rasmussen regained the women’s crown with a tense 21-14, 18-21, 21-19 win over holder and top seed Wang Yihan of China.
It was revenge for the tall Dane who first lifted the title in 2008 only to lose it last year to the Chinese.
“I went on court without being nervous at all. I wanted to show my best play and I was feeling good,” Rasmussen said.
China, which won all five All-England titles last year, had to be content with just two this time, the mixed and the women’s doubles.
Zhang Nan and Zhou Yunlei, unseeded and ranked outside the top 100, scored a magnificent surprise win in a great final against Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, the former world mixed doubles champions from Indonesia, by 21-18, 23-25, 21-18.
But Zhou was denied two titles when she and Cheng Shu were unable to capitalize on a lead of a game and 15-12 and lost 20-22, 21-16, 21-13 to Du Jing and Yu Yang, the top seeded Olympic women’s doubles champions.
Later Denmark also won two titles, with Jonas Rasmussen and Lars Paaske, the unseeded former world champions winning the first all-European men’s doubles final since 1983.
But they had to save four match points before overcoming their compatriots, the fourth-seeded Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-23, 21-19, 26-24.
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