HOME badminton star Chen Yufei defeated current world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei to win the women’s singles championship at the BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou on Sunday.

Chen will replace Tai to become the year-end world No. 1 for the first time in her career. For the Chinese team, a singles top place has been missing for a long time in the women’s game. It was London Olympics champion Li Xuerui who was ranked No. 1 in 2015 and now, after four years, Chen will regain the top spot for China.

Chen dropped the first game against Tai, but rebounded to clinch the title 12-21, 21-12, 21-17.

“I was very calm after the loss of the first game. When I was behind, the only thing I thought was to keep up,” said Chen, who made it seven out of seven wins in finals this year.

Looking ahead to next year’s Tokyo Olympics, Chen said: “In the year of the Olympics, the victory in the finals is not enough. The future will not be easy and I will work hard in 2020.”

Earlier, Japan’s Kento Momota claimed a season-record 11th crown to surpass Lee Chong Wei’s 10 titles in 2010 by beating Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the men’s singles final.(Xinhua)