Badminton: China's Chen Long wins men's crown

Chen Long won badminton's BWF Superseries Finals on Sunday by downing Chinese compatriot Du Pengyu, while China also took the women's singles and women's doubles crowns. Chen, the number two seed, bested Du 21-12, 21-13 to take home the championship in the event at Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre in the southern city. Chen and Du are ranked second and ninth in the world, respectively, according to the Badminton World Federation rankings. In the women's singles, Chinese Olympic champion Li Xuerui, the top seed, beat countrywoman and number three seed Wang Shixian 21-9, 15-4 after Wang retired from the match. Li is ranked No. 2 in the world, while Wang is No. 5. China also took the top spot in the women's doubles, where fourth seeds Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang defeated Denmark's Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl 21-16, 21-14. Wang and Yu, currently ranked third globally, were among eight players disqualified from the 2012 Olympics for attempting to drop round-robin games in a bid to secure a favourable quarter-final draw. The scandal had led Yu to say she would give up badminton, but she resumed playing at the Super Series Premier event in Shanghai in November. In mixed doubles, Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Pedersen knocked off number four seeds Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 17-21, 21-12, 21-14. In the men's doubles, world No. 1-ranked Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark beat second seeds Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan 21-17, 21-19 to defend their championship. Endo and Hayakawa are ranked No. 5 in the world.