Ratchanok Intanon claimed her first title of the year after she overcame top-ranked Tai Tzu-ying 21-16, 14-21, 24-22 in women's singles final at the Malaysia Masters at Kuala Lumpur Sunday.
In her first competitive tournament since the season-ending Dubai World Superseries Finals, where she reached the semi-finals, last December, Ratchanok showed nerves of steel to fight off two match points to beat the world No.1 in the title showdown of the World Tour 500 (formerly Superseries) event in front of a full-house crowd at Axiata Arena.
Ratchanok's victory means Thai shuttlers have now won back-to-back titles after Nitchaon Jindapol's success at the Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters in Bangkok a week earlier.
Ratchanok is projected to replace Spain's Carolina Marin as world No.4 when the new world rankings are released by the Badminton World Federation later this week.
The Thai star quickly took to Instagram to post a thank you message to her fans.
"Happy to be here and thank you for all lovely fans who came support me. First title of the year, good start!!," she captioned the photo of her with the trophy.
The post was gathering "likes" at the rate of 6,000 per hour.
Fifth seed Ratchanok, 22, put on a stunning display of guts and determination to recover from 17-19 down in the deciding game before saving a match point to push it to 20-20. She then saved another match point at 20-21 before taking the game 24-22.
Ratchanok, who also beat second-seed Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in another three-game thriller on Saturday, took home the US$26,250 (approximately 840,000 baht) winner's cheque.
World No.1 Viktor Axelsen also started off the year in style.
The 24-year-old Dane was pushed hard by unseeded Japanese Kenta Nishimoto in the men's singles title match but eventually prevailed 21-13, 21-23, 21-18 in a 72-minute marathon.
Axelsen, who admitted after his semi-final win against Malaysia's Daren Liew on Saturday that he was under "pressure" to make his first final of the season, easily cruised through the opening set.
Nishimoto refused to go down without a fight and forced the tall Dane to work hard for his first win of the year, pushing the match to the third game.
In the end, Axelsen's experience proved pivotal as the world No.1 nicked it 21-18 to take the victory.
Third seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen made it a double for Denmark after winning the women's doubles title as they stunned top seeds Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China 22-20, 21-18 in 44 minutes.
Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia ensured Malaysia end the tournament without a title after they came from behind to defeat Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong 14-21, 24-22, 21-13 in the men's doubles showdown.
The No.2 seeds Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet of Hong Kong were crowned the mixed doubles champions after they beat fifth seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong 19-21, 22-20, 21-18, denying the Chinese any title at the season's first big tournament.
The next stop for all the players, including Ratchanok, is the $350,000 Super 500 Indonesia Masters, which starts Tuesday in Jakarta.