The 24-year-old Chinese ace fought back from a game down to beat former world champion PV Sindhu 16-21, 21-5, 21-16 in the final, dashing the Indian shuttler’s hopes of ending an almost two-year title drought since winning the Singapore Open in July 2022.
World No 7 Zhi Yi produced a magnificent fightback to claw her way back from 3-11 down in the decider to stop Sindhu from winning her third Malaysia Masters after her 2013 and 2016 triumphs.
“I focused on collecting one point after another. I wasn’t thinking about winning the game at that point. I kept believing in myself, never gave up and continued to play steadily.”
“This title is definitely a big boost for my confidence for future tournaments,” she told reporters after the prize-giving ceremony.
With the win, the 2022 and 2024 Asian champion Zhi Yi walks away with US$31,500 in prize money while the 2019 world champion Sindhu takes home US$15,960.
Despite being ranked eighth in the Paris Olympic Qualifiers with 75,148 points, Zhi Yi missed out on earning a spot in the world’s biggest multi-sports Games as only a maximum of two players in the top 16 ranking can qualify from one country.
Second-placed Chen Yu Fei (102,596 points) and sixth-ranked He Bing Jiao (76,274) in the Race to Paris rankings took the qualifying spots, while seventh-placed Han Yue (75,486) and Zhi Yi missed the chance.
Despite being disappointed with the defeat, Sindhu felt that she had shown good improvement and boosted her confidence by reaching the final.
“Slipping up when leading 11-3 is definitely a huge disappointment, I don’t want to think about it. Overall, I need to take the positives from this tournament. This defeat shouldn’t make me sad or feel down for not winning a title…I am happy that I’ve reached the final after a long time (and) played (some) good matches,” she said.
Meanwhile, world No 12 women’s doubles pair Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi of Japan clinched their biggest career victory by winning the World Tour Super 500 event, with their previous best being a second-place finish in the Super 500 Hylo Open in 2021.
The top seeds lived up to expectations to beat South Korea’s Lee Yu Lim-Shin Seung Chan 17-21, 21-19, 21-18 after a 93-minute battle.