Indonesia claimed three titles at the Singapore Open last year and almost repeated the glorious feat this year by taking two. In the men’s singles, 28 year old Simon Santoso showed himself to be a worthy successor to recently-retired Indonesian badminton legend Taufik Hidayat,  seeing off several top players on his way to the final, where he continued his giant killing run by claiming the scalp of Lee Chong Wei, once again taking the men’s singles title for Indonesia. “Indonesian Lightning” Tontowi Ahmad／Liliyana Natsir beat compatriots Riky Widianto／Puspita Richi Dili in straight games to successfully defend their mixed doubles title.  

 

Simon Santoso is a past winner of two Super Series titles but has under-performed for quite a while due to injury and is no longer a seeded player. In fact, he had to come through the qualifying heats to even play at the Singapore Open this year. However, he showed himself to be a dark horse as he beat top players including Lee Dong Guen and Du Peng Yu on his way to the final.   

 

With most people fancying Lee to emerge the winner Santoso played brilliantly. Such was his desire for victory that he played many shots that should really have been played backhand forehand and, even when off balance, played high quality return shots, allowing him to almost totally control the rhythm of the match. Surely the spectators would have found it hard to believe that his opponent actually was winner of three Super Series titles in a row, Lee Chong Wei. 

 

Santoso didn’t only play very well, Lady Luck was also on his side, with several drop shots hitting the net but still going over, giving him precious points. Such was his dominance that former English star Clark, one of the commentators for this match, said “I can’t remember the last time I so Lee Chong Wei so helpless.” Santoso won 21-15, 21-10.

 

In the men’s doubles, the new pairing of world champion Cai Yun and “tall man” Lu Kai won the title on only their second tournament outing.They faced Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu／Tsai China Hsin, seeded sixth, in the final. Lee／Tsai have performed consistently well since they joined forces last year but have, unfortunately, failed to reach the final at the last stage on several occasions. This tournament was a breakthrough for them but they were up against the lethal smashes of Lu Kai of China and went down 19-21, 14-21 to take second place.

 

Tsai China Hsin／Lee Sheng Mu

 

The women’s singles and doubles titles were both taken by China. Bao Yi Xin／Tang Jin Hua took an amazing ninth title in just 11 tournaments they have played together in. Basically, if they get to the final they win the title. In the women’s singles final, world-ranked No.3 Wang Yi Han beat her teammate Li Xue Rui to take the 20th Super Series title of her career.

 

In the mixed doubles, top seeds Ahmad／Natsir successfully defended their title, beating Widianto／Dili in the final, 21-15, 22-20 to take their second title this season.