SINGAPORE: It was a day of double delight for Singapore’s top men’s and women’s singles badminton players on Saturday (Mar 1) as they booked their spots in the German Open finals.
At the Westenergie Sporthalle in Mulheim, Germany, world number 13 Yeo Jia Min saw off a strong challenge from Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt 21-19, 22-20 in 45 minutes.
This was Yeo’s first win in more than a decade against the world-ranked 23rd Dane, who had a superior 4-1 head-to-head record over her.
Describing her opponent as a “hard hitter”, Yeo said that the game plan was to move Blichfeldt around the court more.
“I lost some focus in the second game and she successfully anticipated a few shots, which made me lose my lead,” she added.
“I had to refocus again and managed to come through with a win. I’m really grateful for my first (Badminton World Federation) Super 300 finals and excited to give my all tomorrow.”
Yeo, who is the women’s singles top seed in the tournament, will face either Japan’s world number 41 Riko Gunji or Vietnam’s world number 29 Nguyen Thuy Linh on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Singaporean will be gunning for her first BWF World Tour title since 2019 when she won the Hyderabad Open Super 100.
Yeo’s most recent title was the Polish Open last year, which is an International Challenge event – one grade below the BWF World Tour structure.