Badminton: Huang's the one after missing flight to seize victory

Chia-Chi Huang's three-game match against Aiying Xing lasted over an hour. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Chia-Chi Huang never expected to be in Auckland yesterday, let alone winning the first major title of her career.

She was so sure she wouldn't be playing the final she booked her flight to Australia before the scheduled start time.

In between tears and looks of utter shock, 27-year-old Huang - who is Taiwanese but in the process of becoming an Australian - won the US$50,000 Equinox New Zealand Open with one of her trademark three-game matches.

Huang came into the tournament unseeded but in good form from a win in Victoria the previous week.

She beat the second seed in the third round, third seed and former Commonwealth gold medalist Li Li, in the semifinals and fourth seed Aiying Xing of Singapore 21-18, 22-24, 21-15 in the final.

"I didn't expect it, I'm so pleased, it is my first two-star championship win, now I am going to have a week off!" said Huang.

She was the marathon woman of the tournament with her semifinal lasting 1hr 18m and the final 1hr 12m.

Huang had the chance to take the match in the second game but Xing saved match point three times. Huang came back strong in the third upsetting Xing's rhythm. She began making unforced errors allowing Huang to seize victory.

The men's singles final between former world No6 Ronald Susilo (Singapore) and unseeded Malaysian Tsuen Seng Lee was full of excitement with plenty of gamesmanship from Lee as he slowed the game down dramatically during breaks, even after he was warned by the referee.

Lee won 21-11, 21-12, outplaying Susilo with high-speed smashes which the Singaporean, who is recovering from an achilles injury, could not match.

The mixed doubles clash was an all-Singaporean contest with Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Yujia Li beating Hendra Wijaya and Fan Frances Liu 21-11, 21-12.

The women's doubles was a highlight with the Singapore team of Yanmei Jian and Yujia Li eventually triumphant 21-11, 19-21, 21-15 over the Malaysian pair of Pek Siah Lim and Swee Ling Joanne Quay.

Indonesian second seeds Eng Hian and Rian Sukmawan won the men's doubles in straight games over the third seeds from Singapore, Saputra and Wijaya.

The best of the New Zealand contingent was husband-and-wife combination Geoff and Rebecca Bellingham who reached the semifinals of the mixed, while Dan Shirley and Craig Cooper made the semis of the men's doubles.