Tine Rasmussen of Denmark capped the best week of her career with an upset victory over Xie Xingfang to win the Japan Open badminton tournament on Sunday.

The unseeded Dane, who beat a clutch of the world's top eight players on her march to the title, stunned the two-time former world champion from China 21-15, 21-17 for her biggest career win so far.

"I just feel so happy," said a jubilant Rasmussen. "I knew when I was going to play this match, I would just go onto the court and enjoy myself without thinking win or lose.

"If I lost, I would be happy anyway. So I was pretty relaxed and I could feel that Xie Xingfang was maybe a little nervous and made some mistakes. But I knew that she was going to fight back to win. I just kept my tactics all the way."

Rasmussen took the first game with little trouble, then kept picking on Xie's backhand in the second frame to seal the victory in 38 minutes.

Rasmussen shocked 2006 European champion Xu Huaiwen of Germany, China's Asian champion Jiang Yanjiao, world number one Zhang Ning and finally Lu Lan on her way to the final. She pocketed 13,800 dollars for the win.

"I knew the first one was going to be tough. I played Xu Huaiwen many times and I won only once a long time ago," Rasmussen said.

"I've been close to beating some young Chinese players, but I never felt to beat Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang, so beating all five Chinese in the same tournament is incredible for me."

Camilla Martin of Denmark, the winner here in 2003, was the only previous European player to have done that.

"I never thought I was going to compare myself with her (Martin), but in this tournament, I absolutely do," Rasmussen said.

"She hit the shuttle hard with speed and her shots were heavy," Xie said. "I sometimes hesitated to hit back ... that's what I struggled with."

"It's not a physical problem," she said. "I just rushed too much and made mistakes repeatedly, especially towards the end of the match."

Copyright © 2007 AFP