Resurgent Son wins Hong Kong Open title
Son Wan-ho yielded 12 points in a row in the first game against Kenta Nishimoto before finding his form after the first break to win 14-21, 21-17, 21-13 in 89 minutes.
Published : Nov 18, 2018 18:20 IST
Son Wan-ho won his first tournament in two years on Sunday after the 30-year-old snatched the Hong Kong Open from Japan's Kenta Nishimoto, whose teammate Nozomi Okuhara triumphed in the women's finals.
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The Korean sixth seed, who stunned Japanese world number one Kento Momota in the semis, yielded 12 points in a row in the first game before finding his form after the first break to win 14-21, 21-17, 21-13 in 89 minutes.
Nishimoto kept up the energy but Son pulled away at 13-12 in the decider after the Japanese player knocked two shots into the net.
Son has now won five of the pair's seven encounters this year for his first tournament victory since his December 2016 homeground win.
“I feel very happy... in the second game I felt my opponent was very tired, so I needed to work then to get through the tough part (of the match),” he said.
Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won 21-18, 21-14 in 46 minutes over their second-ranked Chinese opponents in the mixed doubles finals.
Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda take on the Indonesian top seeds in the men's in the day's final match.