Malaysian badminton player Lee Chong Wei. (Photo : Getty Images)
World no. 2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia defeated world no. 1 Chen Long of China in straight sets, 21-13, 21-8, in the final of the 2016 Malaysian Open held at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club on Sunday.
The 33-year-old Lee, former world no. 1 and is considered as Malaysia's greatest badminton player of all time, finished the match in only 42 minutes to win the 11th Malaysian Open title of his illustrious career, as reported by Xinhuanet.
It was a surprise dominating win for the 2012 London Olympics silver medalist as Lee himself was stunned by his performance and the big margin of victory he pulled off against the best badminton player today.
"Many critics have said that I should retire after some poor performances. But I know within myself that I am capable of still producing the goods at the highest level and this win was the proof of that," said Lee, as per IBN Live.
Meanwhile, Chen, a two-time world champion, was gracious in defeat, saying that Lee is "a role model for young Malaysian shuttlers" and that he was satisfied with his runner-up finish as he already achieved his goal of earning points to qualify for the coming Olympic Games.
"It is not easy for a player at his age to maintain a high-level performance year-in, year-out and you can see the crowd really appreciated that," the Hubei, China native said after the match. "I felt I played well, but it was my first time playing in this court and perhaps the drift was too strong."
Lee was not able to compete in last year's Malaysian Open as he was suspended for testing positive on a banned anti-inflammatory substance during the 2014 Copenhagen World Championships.
However, the ban was lifted by the Badminton World Federation in April 2015 as they found out that Lee had only "accidentally" ingested the said substance after a comprehensive investigation. This allowed the veteran shuttler to participate in this year's competitions.
China won the Women's Doubles title in the said tournament as the pair of Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang beat South Korea's tandem of Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan, 21-11, 21-17.
"It was the first time we play against these Korean shuttlers since we paired, so we had prepared to face difficulty," said Yu. "But the strong wind within the stadium make it impossible to apply our tactics, we win because we managed to control the shuttle better."
