Vietnamese debutant, Tien Minh Nguyen created the upset of the championship by beating defending men’s singles champion, Misha Zilberman of Germany 21-18, 25-23 in the Lagos International Badminton Classics, which ended at the weekend.
With a composed performance which depicted his mastery of the game, the Vietnamese sent the crowd at the Molade Okoya Indoor Sports Hall into a frenzy.
Thirty-year-old Zilberman who was the number one seed and the fans favourite ahead of the showdown could not handle the smart play of Nguyen, who showed, with every move, that he was in the tournament for the top prize.
After a tough battle, Nguyen took the initiative with the first set at 21-18 to set a frenetic second set. At this point, the fans called for more fireworks as momentum swung either way in the second set with deuces. However, the Vietnamese won the second set 25-23.
The 36-year-old showed his experience and a higher fitness level as he survived consecutive intensive plays from Zilberman to seal his place amongst the elite as he claimed the singles title.
The women’s singles final was between two familiar foes from Turkey – Neslihan Yigit who is the top seed and seventh seed, Ozge Bayrak.
In a thrilling three-set encounter, Yigit who is placed 43rd in the current BWF rankings emerged victories 21-16, 24-26, 21-13.
In the women’s double, the duo of Pooja Dandu/Sanjana Santosh from India got the better of Bengisu Ercetin and Nazlican Inci from Turkey to pick the title. In the Men’s Doubles, Jones Ralfy Jansen and Peter Kaesbauer beat M. R. Arjun/ Ramchandran Shlok 21-11, 21-8 to pick the top prize, while M.R. Arjun and Maneesha K defeated the pair of Ramchandran Shlok and Rutaparna Panda 21-16, 21-17 in the Mixed Doubles.
The Classics, which is organized by the Lagos State government and the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, has remarkably lived to its high billings and has maintained steady growth since inception.
President of the BFN, Francis Orbih commended all the players for their effort and promised that the competition would continue to get better.
“We are optimistic that the present crop of Nigeria’s players will soon take advantage of the BFN’s efforts at exposing them and availing them with playing opportunities through regular national championships. We’ll get there yet,” Orbih added.