There they stood on the rostrum as the smiles and joy on their faces spoke of their historic win – clinching the women’s doubles title in the USD150,000 Macau Open on Sunday for their most significant paycheque in their career.
Ā
The Malaysians ranked 75, continued their winning ways at the TAP SEAC Multisport Pavilion in Macau and another higher ranked Japanese pair Misato Aratama-Akane Watanabe, the Vietnam Open winners and ranked No 30.
Ā
Vivian Hoo-Cheng Wen clinched the title in straight games 21-15, 22-20 in 39-minutes. The kept their cool and nerves in the second game, taking five points in a row when the Japanese threatened to force a decider after taking a 20-16 lead.
In the semi-finals on Saturday the Malaysians, who only came together in September last year after Vivian’s regular partner Woon Khe Wei came down with a recurrent knee injury, upset fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida also in straight games 21-16, 21-17.
Ā
The win in Macau earned the Malaysians USD11,850 in prize money while the losers settled for USD5,700.
Ā
Their next stop is the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships to be held in Lucknow, India from Nov 20-25 which carries a prize money of USD150,000.Ā
Ā
Meanwhile, SouthĀ Korean veteran, third-seededĀ Hyun-Il, won the men’s singles title with a comfortable 21-9, 21-19 win over China’s Zhou Zeqi in 39 minutes while Canada’s Michelle Li slogged for 75 minutes to subdue Chinese youngster Han Yue 23-25, 21-17, 21-15 for the women’s title. – BY RIZAL ABDULLAH
- Advertisement - 
