WORLD No. 16 Wang Zhiyi of China fashioned a three-set upset of world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, 15-21, 21-13, 21-19, to capture her first women’s singles title at the Smart Badminton Asia Team Championships 2022 on Sunday at the Muntinlupa City Sports Complex.
Wang gained 12,000 points for Badminton World Federation World Rankings, while Yamaguchi received 10,200. Semifinalists An Seyoung of Korea and PV Sindhu of India took 8,400 points.
The 2019 champion Yamaguchi tried to rescue her reign with four consecutive points to cut the deficit to 11-17 in the third and deciding game. Yamaguchi eventually forced a deadlock at 19 with Wang committing an error on a drop attempt.
Wang snagged the title from the Japanese with two straight points off a smash and a forced error.
“I was excited to get the championship,” Wang said through an interpreter. “It’s incredible and unimaginable because no one thought that I will win the title, including myself.”
“Yamaguchi is a very tough opponent so I had to adjust my mentality to go through some tough decisions in the match,” the 22-year-old native of Shashi, Jingzhou, added.
Yamaguchi earlier stamped her class and took the set advantage, capitalizing on Wang’s errors late in the frame.
The 24-year-old needed to catch up in that second set but slightly injured her left knee in an attempt to save the ball.
Wang also took advantage of her opponent’s errors and found her own shots to send the match into a deciding set.