Lee Cheuk Yiu, unbelieving, absorbing the waves of adulation from his home crowd. He had pulled off a feat at the YONEX-SUNRISE Hong Kong Open 2019 whose parallel would be hard to find in recent years.

With his 16-21 21-10 22-20 defeat of eighth seed Anthony Ginting, Lee Cheuk Yiu became only the second men’s singles player from Hong Kong China to win the Hong Kong Open.

It didn’t appear to matter to the 23-year-old that this was his first major final; that he had in fact been promoted from the qualifying round; that he had played full-tilt – and taken down – classy opponents like Shi Yu Qi, Viktor Axelsen and Kidambi Srikanth on his way to the final.

Information from BWF