KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's best couldn't stop the world's best as top seed Zhou Mi from Hong Kong showed her class to retain her singles title at the US$50,000 KLRC New Zealand Badminton Open at the North Shore Events Centre.
The 29-year-old's straight-sets win over Kiwi Rachel Hindley will regain her the world No 1 ranking and plenty of kudos after a 12-month period which has been extremely successful for her.
Zhou appeared to have the shuttlecock on a string placing it all over the court, not letting the New Zealander into the rallies. She forced Hindley into errors in the 21-10, 21-15 win and never seemed to get flustered despite falling behind early in each set.
Despite the loss there was some success for Hindley who gained close to US$2000 in prizemoney which will be put to good use as she travels to Europe on Friday for a number of tournaments.
The men's singles final was a matchup between the 2005 winner Sairul Ayob against fellow Malaysian Lee Tsuen Seng who was the tournaments 2006 winner. In a lengthy battle which lasted well over 40 minutes it was Lee who triumphed with his aggressive left-handed game 24-17, 21-17. The actual winning point was a slight anticlimax as Ayob let a shot drop in when he thought it was going out, giving Lee the victory.
The mixed final featured an all-Taipei contest with the world No 16 pair of Hung Ling Chen and Chia Chi Chou playing the No 20 ranked team in the world, Yu Hsin Hsieh/Yu Chin Chien. It was the higher ranked pair who finished ahead 21-18, 22-20.
The men's doubles final was a highlight with the power hitting of Hung Ling Chen and Yu Lang Lin from Taipei beating the top seeds Fernando Kurniawan and Lingga Lie of Indonesia 22-20, 21-10 while in the women's doubles final the second seeds Yu Chin Chien and Chia Chi Chou (Taipei) accounted for the Malaysian top seeds Chiou Hwee Haw and Pek Siah Lim 21-8, 21-15.
