After a two-year run of poor form and debilitating injuries, Taiwanese badminton duo Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋) yesterday captured their first title since winning the men’s doubles gold at the Tokyo Olympics in late July 2021.
Wang and Lee upended fifth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 21-19, 21-13 in the men’s doubles final of the Daihatsu Japan Open, almost two years to the day after they won Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in badminton in the same city.
The victory had not been expected, as Lee originally booked a flight home on Saturday, but it certainly brought the pair joy and relief.
Photo: AP
“I love Tokyo,” Wang wrote on Facebook. “It has finally happened after making everybody wait so long... Thank you everyone for waiting with us.”
“This wasn’t just my first title since winning Olympic gold, it was my first Super 750 title, which is a real milestone,” he added, referring to the tournament’s tier, one of the highest just below the Olympics, World Championships and Super 1000 events.
“We finally have our breakthrough,” Lee wrote in a separate Facebook post.
“I can’t guarantee that we’ll always win in the future, but I will continue to feel passionate about the game and appreciate everything that badminton brings to me,” Lee said.
The victory came after the Taiwanese duo, who came into the Tokyo event unseeded and ranked 18th in the world, ran a gauntlet of seeded teams, proving they might have finally regained their form.
Against Hoki and Kobayashi, the Taiwanese maintained a steady lead throughout the first game until the Japanese ran off three straight points to tie it at 19. Lee and Wang rallied to win the next two points, and they dominated the second game after falling behind 7-6.
The victory would help the duo build up ranking points to earn the best possible seed in next year’s Paris Olympics.
“This is part of the points cycle for Paris, so getting a lot of ranking points will take some of the pressure off,” Lee told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
He also acknowledged that their difficulties in the past two years were due to more than just injuries.
“We have to face up [to the issues] with courage. We can’t just ignore it when we don’t play well. We have to find ways to deal with the issues we have,” Lee said.
Lee and Wang were last night to fly to Sydney to prepare for the Super 500 Sathio Group Australian Open, which starts tomorrow.
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