Bangkok (Thailand), Dec 11 (IANS) Japan's Akane Yamaguchi beat Tai Tzu-Ying of Chinese Taipei 21-18, 22-20 in the final to clinch the women's singles title at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals, here on Sunday.While the score was close Yamaguchi, who last won the season-ender five years ago, was unmistakably in the driver's seat during the 46-minute contest.With this, the Japanese became the first women's singles player since Ye Zhaoying in 1997 to claim the All England Open, World Championships and end-of-season finals all in the same year."She kept coming at me, to put pressure on me. But I wanted to be aggressive to hold on to the lead. I don't know if it's the best I've ever played but I did have a good week here," said Yamaguchi after her win."I thought I defended well in the second game. I didn't panic and waited for my opportunity to attack. I'm not tall so the speed is important to me. Without it I don't think I stand a chance," she added.Her opponent Tai, who missed her third WTF title, admitted to struggling to keep up with the ferocious speed."I thought she was slightly faster than me. I wanted to attack because my defense wasn't great today. But unfortunately, I couldn't cut down on my errors and her net play was very good," said Tai."I did quite OK this season. The new season will start quickly in January so I won't get much time to rest. I hope to recover and get back in good condition. There will be many competitions starting from April," she added.
--IANSavn/bsk
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