Sports

Japan's Yamaguchi retains women's singles title at badminton worlds

Aug 29 (chinadaily.com.cn) - Top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan defeated Olympic champion Chen Yufei to retain the women's singles title at the World Badminton Championships here on Sunday.

Yamaguchi won the match 20-12, 10-21, 21-14 in one hour and eight minutes.

Chen, seeking to become the first player from China to win the women's singles title in 11 years, was overpowered in the third set, running out of energy after falling 8-1 behind.

The 24-year-old complained that "the strong downwind" affected her performance in the first and third sets, adding that the hopes of bringing China its first title after 11 years gave her a lot of pressure.

"I have been trying hard not to listen to the talking, but sometimes it's everywhere," she said. "But I lost the match largely because she did better than me in those details."

It is the fourth straight time that Chen has lost to Yamaguchi since 2020. The Japanese shuttler has beaten Chen 14 times in their 22 meetings. ...continue reading

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