Carolina Marin, Chen Long bag Australian Open Superseries crowns

Sydney: World No.1 Chen Long was taken to three games before downing Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen to win the Australian Open Badminton Superseries final in Sydney on Sunday. The Chinese star defeated the World No.9 Axelsen 21-12, 14-21, 21-18 in one hour and 17 minutes.

Chen now leads Axelsen 4-0 in their tournament meetings. Chen had reached the men’s final after beating 10th-ranked Tian Houwei in an all-Chinese semi-final, 21-14, 21-19 on Saturday. Spain’s World No.3 Carolina Marin took the women’s singles in a tight contest with China’s sixth-ranked Shixian Wang 22-20, 21-18 in just under an hour.

It was a big week for the Spaniard, who beat South Korea’s World No.7 Sung Ji-Hyun 21-13, 21-14 to reach Sunday’s final after losing to India’s Saina Nehwal in last year’s tournament decider. The Australia Open is the fifth event of the BWF World Superseries circuit and counts towards qualifying for Rio Olympics.