SINGAPORE: World number 13 Yeo Jia Min clinched her first Badminton World Federation (BWF) title since 2019 after beating Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh on Sunday (Mar 2).
At the Westenergie Sporthalle in Mulheim, Germany, Singapore’s top women’s singles player saw off her opponent 21-16, 21-17 in 41 minutes.
26-year-old Yeo’s last BWF title came at the Super 100 Hyderabad Open in August 2019, and her most recent title was the Polish Open last year, an International Challenge event one grade below the BWF World Tour structure.
The tournament top seed came into the clash with the superior head-to-head record (3-1) and world ranked 29 Nguyen, having last beaten her in this year’s Indian Open.
A day after a strong victory over Denmark’s defending champion Mia Blichfeldt, Yeo raced to a 11-7 lead at the interval. But the Vietnamese sixth seed clawed her way back, cutting the deficit to as little as two points, before Yeo took the first game.
Nguyen would take her first lead at 2-1 in the second game after a successful challenge. But a combination of excellent net play and a series of unforced errors from the Vietnamese gave the Singaporean a five-point edge at the interval.
Although Nguyen once again mounted a comeback to come within two points of levelling things up, Yeo held her nerve to win the first Super 300 title of her career.