SINGAPORE: Lee Chong Wei was the proud winner of the Aviva Singapore Open men’s singles title yesterday, leaving little doubt as to who is the best in the competition.

The Malaysian No. 1 blew away the challenge of Indonesia’s Simon Santoso in the final at the Indoor stadium, here in scores of 21-13,21-5 to take home the winner’s cheque of US$15,000 (RM48,000).

Twenty-nine minutes was all it took for Chong Wei to gain his rightful place on the winner’s rostrum leaving Simon not knowing what really went wrong on court.

Chong Wei’s performance was immaculate as he hardly put a foot wrong to stun his Indonesian opponent into total submission.

There was a bit of resistance early in the match but the sixth seeded Indonesian was never in contention as Chong Wei displayed his wide repertoire of strokes to romp home an easy winner.

There was another Malaysian winner on court too in Mohd Zakry Latif and Fairuzizuan Tazary who bagged the men’s doubles title after their 21-18,21-17 win over another Malaysian pair Lin Woon Fui and Gan Teik Chai.

For Chong Wei, it was a victory which will put him in the right frame of mind as he heads for the Beijing Olympics in August with the gold medal uppermost on his mind.

But for now there is the Singapore Open title to savour. It is his first in six attempts after the disappointment of the 2004 final where he lost to Denmark’s Kenneth Jonassen.

“I am happy with my victory here but as I have said right from the beginning that I am at the Singapore Open because I need to have a feel of competition before I head for Beijing.

“Whether I win or lose doesn’t matter. In fact, I believe many of the top players want to experience the feel of competition before a major event. Look at Lin Dan (China’s No. 1). He is going to the Thai Open and it’s not even a super series event.

“I will take a short break and then go back to training again until I leave for the Beijing Olympics,” said Chong Wei who will be skipping next week’s Indonesian Open where he is the defending champion.

For Simon, deep inside he knew he had lost to a player who hardly put a foot wrong.

“Chong Wei was extraordinary today. His performance was flawless but that can be expected from a player who is so matured. For me I made far too many errors and the gap was always too big for me to do anything,” said Simon who is ranked No. 12 in the world.

For Mohd Zakry and Fairuzizuan, who missed out on the Beijing Olympics, their win in the men’s doubles is the first major title they have won and the US$13,800 prize money is their biggest payday so far.

“Our win here is totally unexpected. But when we arrived here and saw the withdrawal list plus the defeat of the two top Danish pair and the No. 2 Chinese pair, we were confident.

“We hope this will be a new beginning for us as we look forward to win more titles. In fact, we have beaten everybody on the circuit except for the Indonesian pair of Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, the world’s No. 1, and the Koreans, Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung,” said said Mohd Zakry.

The Indonesian Open in Jakarta next week is next on their list and they are hoping to do better than their semi-final appearance last year.

“This victory will provide us the confidence to take them on,” said Mohd Zakry.

China, the powerhouse of world badminton, only had one title to take home this time and it came from their women’s doubles pair of Yu Yang and Du Jing who beat Taipei’s Cheng Wen Hsing and Chien Yu Chin 21-16,21-19.

The women’s singles title went to Denmark’s Tine Rasmussen who overcame the stiff resistance of Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi 21-9, 21-17 for her fourth title in the Super Series after the 2008 Malaysian Open, the 2007 Japan Open and the 2008 All-England title.

— Bernama