Defending champs Sony, Ratchanok out of OUE Open
With men's and women's singles defending champions out, OUE Open will have champions in all five events
The OUE Singapore Open 2017 will see new champions in all five events, following the exits of defending champions Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Ratchanok Intanon.
While Sony had a fairytale run last year, where he emerged from the qualifiers to win the men’s singles title, the Indonesian crashed out in the first round on Wednesday, after his 19-21, 21-15, 21-18 loss to South Korea’s Lee Dong Keun at the Indoor Stadium.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s former world champion Ratchanok fell 21-8, 21-18 to Japan’s Sayaka Sato in 37 minutes.
Ratchanok said: “I confused my game today and she knew how to play me. I made several unforced errors and couldn’t score some of the easy points.
“I tried to come back in the second set, but it was too late as the gap was too big.”
The defending champions for the men’s doubles (Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan), women’s doubles (Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii) and mixed doubles (Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na) did not return to defend their OUE Open titles this year.
Also, Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min exited the women’s singles after losing 21-15, 21-17 to South Korea’s Kim Hyo Min.
Yeo, 18, said: “Overall, I couldn’t control the game as well as I did in my previous matches.
“I took a bit too long to adjust to the side draft and I had poor racket control as well.”
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