Su Li-yang (蘇力揚) lost in the men's singles finals of the Taipei Open badminton tournament on Sunday, but just reaching the finals was reward enough for the 21-year-old Taiwanese ranked 42nd in the world.
Su fell 23-21, 21-15 to Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia in the finals, but he was satisfied with his week after bulldozing his way to the final with four straight sets wins, including a 21-11, 21-15 upset of Hong Kong ace NG Ka Long Angus (伍家朗) in the semifinals Saturday.
Describing his performance in the tourney at Tian-mu Arena as "beyond my expectations," Su said he never thought that he could make it to the final of a Super 300 event.
"But I can't get complacent [after this result], because I still have a lot to improve on," Su said after Sunday's loss to the world No. 23.
Su's second-place finish meant that he outperformed many of his more celebrated countrymen at the tournament, including ace Chou Tien-chen (周天成, sixth in the world), the world No. 24 Lin Chun-yi (林俊義), and world No. 28 Wang Tzu-wei (王子維).
His Instagram followers also surged by over 65 percent, rising from 1,500 prior to the tournament to over 2,650 as of 8 p.m. Sunday.
Aside from Su, Taiwan scored two other second-place finishes in the tournament after losing in the men's doubles and mixed doubles finals.
Second-seeded men's doubles duo Lu Ching-yao (盧敬堯) and Yang Po-han (楊博涵) took the first game in their final 22-20 before losing two consecutive games 21-17, 21-14 to the defending champions from Malaysia, Man Wei Chong (萬煒聰) and Tee Kai Wun (鄭凱文).
Lu said he and Yang could not get their tempo back after getting too excited when they won the first game, while Yang felt worn down after having played tournaments the past six weeks and needing to take painkillers before each match this week in Taipei to get through the event.
Also losing to a Malaysian pair in the final were Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相傑) and Lin Xiao-min (林筱閔), who finished second in the mixed doubles after losing to the fourth-seeded Chen Tan Jie (陳堂傑) and Toh Ee Wei (杜頤溈) 21-12, 21-8.
