Japan's Yamaguchi retains women's singles title at badminton worlds

TOKYO - Top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan defeated Olympic champion Chen Yufei to retain the women's singles title at the World Badminton Championships here on Sunday.

Yamaguchi won the match 20-12, 10-21, 21-14 in one hour and eight minutes.

Chen, seeking to become the first player from China to win the women's singles title in 11 years, was overpowered in the third set, running out of energy after falling 8-1 behind.

The 24-year-old complained that "the strong downwind" affected her performance in the first and third sets, adding that the hopes of bringing China its first title after 11 years gave her a lot of pressure.

"I have been trying hard not to listen to the talking, but sometimes it's everywhere," she said. "But I lost the match largely because she did better than me in those details."

It is the fourth straight time that Chen has lost to Yamaguchi since 2020. The Japanese shuttler has beaten Chen 14 times in their 22 meetings.

Although missing the women's singles title, China was still the biggest winner at the championships, winning two out of five titles.

Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China won their third mixed doubles world title by beating two-time runners-up Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan 21-13, 21-16.

Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan also landed their third gold medal in the women's doubles event at the world championships as the Chinese duo beat South Korea's Kim Soyeong and Kong Heeyong 22-20, 21-14.

In the men's singles final, top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, the winner of the 2017 edition, breezed past Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-5, 21-16 to add to his Tokyo Olympic title.

Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik triumphed in the men's doubles by defeating Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 21-19, 21-14.