Jonatan Christie dedicated his first Super 750 title to the people who matter most after beating Li Shi Feng 16-21 21-15 21-14 in the YONEX French Open 2023 final.

“I said I wanted a different result from my last French Open final and here we are,” said an emotional Christie, referring to his 2019 loss to Chen Long. “I’m so happy, this is such an important victory. I want to thank my coach, my friends and my supporters. This one is for you,” added the Indonesian.

“I’ve been working on my confidence. When you have more confidence in your game, you can play more aggressively and keep to your strategy.”

Pressed on his thoughts on his opponent, Christie said: “Winning gold at the Asian Games sent his confidence crazy high. Li was very difficult to play.”

Liu/Tan Showcase Nerves of Steel

The women’s doubles final was a thriller and saw Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning face off against Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai for the second time in three weeks after the Arctic Open final the Thais lost two Sundays ago. Liu/Tan won again, 26-24 21-19 this time, to claim their fourth title of the season.

“We are really happy. You can see how much it means to us with our celebration,” said Liu.

Down four game points in the opener, the Chinese duo displayed nerves of steel to come through the Thais’ attack.

“At that moment we had to concentrate on the match, avoid errors and try our best,” said Tan.

In winning, they became the first Chinese women’s pair to win the title since teammates Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan in 2016.

“We don’t think about pressure like that,” said Liu. “That’s just not something we’ve done before.”

“We have the Hylo Open next week so there’s not much time to celebrate but we are feeling great and optimistic about our future. We are really enjoying playing these big tournaments,” added a smiley Tan.

→ Results (Finals)

WHAT OTHERS SAID:

“In the last game, it was important to communicate and keep to our strategy. Winning the final gives us motivation that our efforts and training are paying off.” – Wei Ya Xin on winning her first Super 750 title with Jiang Zhen Bang

“You never get tired of being on the podium, but we are not throwing our clothes off as we did for our 2018 China Open with Anders running around and I was thinking ‘What is going on?’. We are enjoying it and it’s a huge relief.” – Kim Astrup after he and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen collected their fifth title of the year

“Every match against her is difficult. I needed to go in with a positive attitude and lots of confidence. And I did.” – Chen Yu Fei on winning in back-to-back weeks after defeating Tai Tzu Ying 21-17 22-20 to take her maiden French Open title