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.
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.
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.
The win in Macau earned the Malaysians USD11,850 in prize money while the losers settled for USD5,700.
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.
Meanwhile, South Korean veteran, third-seeded 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 - 
