Antonsen and Tai claim badminton World Tour Finals titles

BANGKOK: Top-ranked Tai Tzu-ying won a dramatic cliffhanger women's badminton World Tour Final in Bangkok Sunday, blocking reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin's bid for a hat-trick of titles in three weeks.

The all Danish men's singles final was equally nail biting as Anders Antonsen denied Viktor Axelsen a third tournament win in three weeks.

Marin beat the Taiwanese 26-year-old two weeks in a row during the previous Thailand Open tournament finals.

The Spaniard had a shaky start Sunday as Tai exploited holes in her defence early, but Marin mounted a successful comeback in the later stages winning the opener 21-14.

Marin was loud and fiesty in her verbal celebrations, but a visibly annoyed Tai soon found her own voice.

The pair also played mind games over shuttlecock changes.

In the second game Tai dominated early and dictated a commanding pace, eventually triumphing 21-8.

The decider was filled with fast and furious rallies -- both players yo-yoed up and down the scoreboard -- but two late spectacular drop shots were critical in sealing Tai's victory 21-19.

"Before this match today I kept telling myself that I had to play patiently. In the previous matches, all my mistakes were caused (by) my own impatience," Tai said.

Thailand has hosted three consecutive badminton tournaments in a bio-secure coronavirus bubble, without spectators, to guard against the pandemic.

Axelsen, ranked fourth, couldn't control his nerves -- losing the first game 16-21 -- his body language showing immense frustration as errors piled up and shots landed wide.

He managed to regroup to win the second game 21-5.

But in the decider Antonsen had all the right answers, triumphing 21-17 to claim the game and the hour-long match against an increasingly ruffled Axelsen.

Antonsen is the only man to beat Axelsen in three weeks.

The women's doubles was an all-Korean showdown with fourth-ranked Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan pushing sixth-ranked Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong to three games over 92 minutes.

Lee and Shin lost the first game 15-21 before scrapping through to claim the second 26-24.

They had momentum early in the third game and were able to hold off a late resurgence from their opponents to win the decider 21-19.

In the men's doubles, seventh-ranked Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan won their third title in three weeks.

They beat Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-17, 23-21 in 37 minutes.

Lee admitted the pair "were nervous coming in the finals here."

"We were playing our idols. I thought: 'oh my god, oh my god.' Three titles is incredible," he said.

Thailand's third seeds Sapsiree Taerattanachai and Dechapol Puavaranukroh are also going for a trio of titles.

They are up against sixth-ranked South Koreans Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yoo-jung.