Subhankar Dey wins the 2018 SaarLorLux Open
Indian Star shuttler Subhankar Dey won the 2018 SaarLorLux Open HSBC world tour 100 level tournament. The world No. 64 Subhankar Dey of India created a huge upset in the final of SaarLorLux open here in Germany after beating Title favourite Rajiv Ouseph in the final. He won the final in two straight games by 21-11, 21-14 in just 34 minutes of play. It is the first title of the year for the 25-year-old Kolkata born Shuttler.
Subhankar Dey took the initial lead by 11-5 until the mid-game interval in the opening game. After that, the 2017 European champion tried to get a few points but Dey finished off the first game with 21-11. In the second game also Dey maintained the lead up to mid game interval by 11-8 and maintained the lead till 16-14. After that, he won the five consecutive points and sealed the match in his favour in just 34 minutes of play.
Subhankar played excellent badminton throughout the whole tournament and showed a great display of badminton against the higher ranked players. Earlier he beat the two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in the pre-quarterfinals of the same tournament. This title is a big morale-booster for the Indian shuttler for upcoming season-ending tournaments.
In the women's singles all Chinese finals, Cai Yanyan beat Chen Xiaoxin by 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 in a match of just two minutes short of an hour mark. Stoeva sisters of Bulgaria took the women's doubles crown after beating the Indonesian pair by 22-20, 15-21, 21-19 in an hour and 12 minutes long match.
Marcus Ellis took the two titles in men's and mixed doubles categories of the same event. He and Chris Langridge took the title in men's doubles while in the mixed doubles he won the title with Lauren Smith after beating a pair from China.
All the players will now look forward to the season-ending tournaments in the Asian Circuits to qualify for the year ending HSBC world tour finals and finished off the year with the better rank.