India’s Subhankar Dey capped of a memorable week in Germany by causing another upset in the final to defeat fifth seed Rajiv Ouseph 21-11, 21-14 of the SaarLorLux Open Super 100 badminton tournament in Saarbrucken, Germany, on Sunday.
Unseeded, the Indian needed just 33 minutes to defeat the British no 1 Ouseph.
Dey was barely troubled in the opening game as he didn’t lose the lead after the score was 0-1. Winning seven consecutive points to take a 7-1 lead, Dey wrapped up the opener in no time.
The second game was a bit more tighter with the former European champion and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Ouseph levelled things up a couple of times at 4-4 and 7-7 but Dey once again pulled away. eventually winning five straight points from 16-14 to wrap up the match.
“It’s been amazing, I can’t believe it’s real,” Dey said after the match. “It’s my biggest achievement in life, actually. Expected to work really hard in long rallies in the final but it turned out to be short. I am playing really well right now. I did a lot of homework and it paid off. I watched his games. I was patient and knew I had nothing to lose.”
Dey had earlier saved two match points against China’s Ren Pengbo before managing to continue his unbeaten run to reach the men’s singles final in the SaarLorLux Open Super 100 badminton tournament in Saarbrucken, Germany, on Saturday.
The world number 64 Indian, who had accounted for former world and Olympic champion Lin Dan in the earlier rounds got the better of Ren 21-18, 11-21, 24-22 in a nerve wrecking semifinal that lasted an hour and eight minutes.
“Beating Lin Dan was really, really special to me. I am glad I made this [week happen],” he added.