Canada’s star, Michelle Li, won gold at Macau Open 2018 after winning 5 tough matches against outstandings Asian rivals. This tournament has held at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion in Macau from October 30th to November 4th.
Michelle Li started her participation as seeded 1 and won the first match against Sung Shuo Yun (TPE) by 21-16 and 21-19. After beating Katethong from Thailand (21-16, 15-21 and 21-12), Michelle faced Li Xuerui (CHN) for the third time this year (Michelle lost to Xuerui at US Open and at Canada Open) but this time the victory would be for our Pan Am player.
After two straight games, Michelle beat Xuerui, who in 2015 was number 1 in the World Ranking and returned this year after a terrible injury, by 21-1 and 21-18 in Quarterfinals.
In Semifinals, Li followed with the victories and surpassed Ayumi Mine (JPN) by 21-15, 8-21 and 21-13, managing to qualify for the final and fight for the tournament title against Han Yue (CHN), to whom Li beat after 3 hard games (23-25, 21-17 and 21-15) in 75 minutes of play.
Michelle returned to add a new crown to her successful sports career, being one of the highest representatives of Pan American badminton, and now she will compete at the China Open and at Hong Kong Open, looking to continue adding to her preparation for the next Pan Am Games 2019 and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
