Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn and South Korea’s An Se-young emerged champions at the India Open after stunning wins over two-time world champions Viktor Axelsen and Akane Yamaguchi in their men’s and women’s singles finals, respectively, on Sunday.

Kunlavut beat Olympic champion Axelsen of Denmark 22-20, 10-21, 21-12 in 64 minutes to claim his maiden Super 750 tournament title, while Se-young saw off world No. 1 Yamaguchi 15-21, 21-16, 21-12 in the women’s singles summit showdown.

“From my earlier losses against Viktor, I had learnt that if I could engage him in long rallies and take the match to the decider, then I have a chance to win. I could manage to do that today (Sunday) and even after losing the second game, I believed that I could win,” Kunlavut said.

The Dane was an odds-on favourite to win the title as he led Kunlavut 6-0 in their career head-to-head record with victories at the World Championships final and Denmark Open last year.

South Korea’s An Se Young reacts after winning her women’s singles final at the India Open in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI photo

But Kunlavut seemed all set to buck the trend as he didn’t allow Axelsen to play his attacking game. He didn’t give him the lofted clears and kept the shuttle flat and precise.

Se-young, on the other hand, started to up the pace and tried to play more angled returns, pepped up by coach Sung Ji Hyun. Using crosscourt drops and slices, she started controlling the rallies as Yamaguchi erred with the lines.

Se-young made her opponent run corner to corner using reverse slices and drops. The Japanese also missed the lines and fumbled at the nets to allow the South Korean to take the match to the decider.

World No. 11 Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang came out as the winners in men’s doubles after seeing off star Malaysian third seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 14-21, 21-19, 21-18 in the final for their second World Tour title following the triumph at Japan Open last year.

The other two doubles matches didn’t happen following two withdrawals, both featuring Chinese pairs, on the final day of the tournament due to ill health.

Wang Yi Lyu, who was due to play the mixed doubles final with Huang Dong Ping, and Chen Qing Chen, who was to feature in the women’s doubles final with Jia Yi Fan, reported sick.

They were suffering from diarrhoea and withdrew from their respective matches.

Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won the mixed doubles title, while Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida, also from Japan, claimed the women’s doubles crown.