Olympic champion An Seyoung was in a hurry today, Sunday (19 October), to complete her quest of achieving a career Grand Slam at Super 750 level, beating defending champion Wang Zhi Yi in two sets, 21-5, 24-22.
The Republic of Korea athlete now creates history by becoming the first singles player to win all Super 750 tournaments in their career.
Aged just 23, An totally dominated World No.2 Wang in the first set, coming out 21-5 in a speedy 16 minutes, but was made to work hard in the second set by the athlete from People’s Republic of China who wasn’t willing to relinquish her title so easily.
Wang raced into a lead, at one point holding an eight-point advantage over An, at 18-10. But An had a mission to complete and won 10 out of the 11 following points, for a match point.
A 41-shot rally followed, with every shot in the book, finally going the way of Wang for a 20-20 tie, with a two-point winning margin required.
Wang created two game points in the following exchanges, which she couldn’t take.
With the pair on 22 points each, an error from Wang left An with a second match point, which she duly took, raising her arms aloft and cupping her ear to hear more cheers from the Odense crowd.
They had witnessed something special after all.