WS - Final - HE from China rewrites the history

The WS final is opposing two former winners of the Yonex French Open. On one side, Carolina MARIN (n°6, Spain) won in 2015 and on this other side HE Bing Jiao (n°8, China) claimed her title one year after in 2016. 

Except for a potential second title here, the real goal is different for two players at very different stages of their careers. For HE Bing Jiao, it is about surfing on her good form after she won last week in Denmark against her compatriot CHEN Yu Fei. Carolina MARIN wants to prove to herself and to the world that she can reach her best level again, 18 months after her second ACL.   

The first set began in a stadium still amazed by what happened earlier.

An 11/9 lead at the break for HE Bing Jiao, taking advantage of the numerous mistakes of MARIN, mainly in the length. However, the Spaniard adjusted quite quickly and tried to play at the net, successfully. Downed by one at 15/16, she won the next 6 points to take the first set (21/16). 

Right back at the start of the second set, HE Bing Jiao reacted. The 2022 Denmark Open winner would not let the Olympic gold medalist develop her game plan anymore: 7/0 then 11/2 in favor of the Chinese player at the interval. At 8/13, we believed in a comeback from MARIN but HE did not see it the same way. She won 7 points straight and a final set had to be played (21/9).   

Once again, HE Bing Jiao had a strong start and took a 6-1 lead. MARIN seemed to be moving slower than her opponent. Filled with confidence and leading 11/4, the title seemed promised to the 2016 French Open Champion. But the Spaniard really has the heart of a true champion and came back again to tie the score at 12/12. From this point, nobody was able to make a solid difference until HE Bing Jiao gave herself two opportunities to seal the deal. MARIN saved them both and the crowd went crazy. HE’s third chance was the one and she finally defeated the Spaniard (16/21 21/9 22/20).

After the match HE Bing Jiao told us that she was “so glad that she played against Carolina MARIN today who played incredibly well”. To defend that well until the end she taught that she “was not thinking about my physical condition. I tried to defend every attack”. No hard feeling for Carolina MARIN: “I cannot be happy or mad with myself. I fought until the end with everything I had today”. Next meeting for her: “I am now thinking about the next week tournament in Germany”.