How many hat-trick champions are we going to witness?
Three finals in three consecutive tournaments. Two finals down, another one is happening today at the 2020 BWF World Tour Finals.
That’s the story of Viktor Axelsen in men’s singles, Carolina Marin in women's singles, Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin (Taiwan) in men's doubles and Thailand's Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the mixed doubles. They have won titles at the Yonex Thailand Open and Toyota Thailand Open in the last two weeks.
For Axelsen and Marin, their opponents are not that much different from the first tournament. Axelsen faces his own Danish compatriot Anders Antonsen. A week earlier at the Toyota Thailand Open, he also beat his compatriot, Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.
Meanwhile Marin, in the previous two events, also met with Tai Tzu Ying. In the two previous events, they were each other’s opponents.
At the Yonex Thailand Open, January 12-17, Marin won the match in two games 21-9, 21-16. A week after that, January 19-24, the gold medalist at the Rio 2016 Olympics defeated Tzu Ying also in straight games 21-19, 21-17.
It’s a bit different for Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin pair who faced three different opponents. At the Yonex Thailand Open, they defeated the Malaysian doubles Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong, then at the Toyota Thailand Open beat other Malaysian representatives Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik. This time, they will face the Indonesian pair Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan.
Meanwhile, Dechapol Puavarannukroh / Sapsiree Taerattanachai will meet their opponents again in the final at the Toyota Thailand Open, the South Korean pair Seo Seung Jae / Chae Yu Jung. In fact, the meeting in this final is also their third meeting during the three events in Thailand. They also met at the semifinals of the Yonex Thailand Open.
In the women's doubles categories, there is also a repeat of the previous week's meeting at the Toyota Thailand Open between two Korean representatives Lee So-Hee / Shin Seung Chan and Kim So Yeong / Kong Hee Yong.
Today we finally reach the final round of the BWF World Tour Finals that wraps up the 3 consecutive events in the BWF World Tour tournaments. How many hat-tricks champions are we going to witness at the BWF World Tour Finals’ podium? Or are we going to witness the rise of new champions?
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