At this time in this year's badminton World Championships, the most eye-catching player is the Singapore men's singles player Luo Jianyou. After eliminating Olympic champion Arcelong in the first round, Luo Jianyou opened all the way to the top 8, and played single-set single digits to his opponents in three consecutive rounds. In the blink of an eye, he went from being a newcomer to one of the favourites to win the title.
Moved to Singapore and became famous by defeating Lin Dan in one battle
Born in Penang, Malaysia, the 24-year-old Luo Jianyou often fought with Li Zijia, the current Malaysian male single brother, when he was a child. At the age of 13, Luo Jianyou attended the Singapore Sports School and obtained Singaporean citizenship in 2015 to officially represent the Singapore team in the competition. In order to cultivate new talents, the Singapore national team specially hired Murien, who had coached Tawfik, as Luo Jianyou's coach. Luo Jianyou's older brother Luo Jianxian is also a badminton player, he mainly focuses on men's doubles, but he is ranked low in the world rankings, and it is difficult to participate in high-level competitions.
Luo Jianyou first became famous at the Thai Masters in early 2019, when the world ranking was still above 100, and he defeated Liu Haichao, Sun Feixiang, Zhou Zeqi and Zhao Junpeng, four national men's singles players, to reach the men's singles final. In the final, Luo Jianyou defeated the famous Lin Dan 2-0 to win the championship.
For a time, the entire sports scene in Singapore boiled over, and the headlines in Singapore's sports news at that time were: Luo Jianyou became the first player in China to play Lin Dan.
Being invited to Dubai for training has made great progress
At the Tokyo Olympics, Luo Jianyou was in the same group as Indonesia's famous Jonatan, and he did not qualify after playing three sets with his opponent. Although he missed the top 16 of the Olympic Games, he ushered in a career peak after the Olympic Games. At that time, the famous Acetron set up a training base at his own expense in Dubai, and invited five good players such as Luo Jianyou, Yang Can, and Lakshya as a training mutual aid team.
The training conditions at the Al Sheba Sports Centre in Dubai are very good and can simulate the temperature and humidity of different badminton courts. Acetron's training team trains twice a day, but because he has to participate in European competitions including the Su Cup and the Soup Cup, their team has been training in Dubai for a month before being temporarily disbanded.
Maybe even Acelon didn't expect that this month's training would be so effective. Luo Jianyou won the Super 500 at the Hailu Open at the end of October (when Li Zijia withdrew due to injury in the final decider 12-17), defeated the then world number one Kento Momota at the Indonesia Open, and finally lost to Arcelor in the final to finish runner-up.
"Single-digit killer" won consecutive victories to advance
However, probably no one would have thought that Luo Jianyou could go so far at this World Championships, not entirely because he was only ranked 22nd in the world, but because he met Olympic champion Acesaron in the first round. Luo Jianyou's previous record against Arcelor was four consecutive defeats, most recently losing 0-2 at the Danish Open and 1-2 at the Indonesia Open.
In the first round of the Men's Singles world championships, the biggest favorite Acetron won the first set 21-14 easily, but in the last two sets it completely lost resistance, Luo Jianyou actually won the wild wind sweeping leaf victory 21-9 and 21-6, creating a big upset in this competition. Then, Luo Jianyou defeated the little-known Austrian Luca 21-4, 21-8, and defeated Thailand's Wang Gaolun 21-4, 21-7 in last night's match to reach the quarterfinals.
Each game will create a single-game single-digit score, and the opponents are Olympic champion Acelon and world champion Wang Gaolun, such a state instantly ignited the topic, and Luo Jianyou won the title of "single-digit killer". In today's quarter-final, he will face India's Plannoi, and if he passes, his potential opponents in the semi-finals will be the winners of Li Zijia and Antonsen, which will be another game to test the color.
Whether Luo Jianyou can be black or not remains to be verified in three rounds of competition, but it is certain that this year's World Championship men's singles champion will be brand new, and he will be the fifth "new king" in the past decade after Lin Dan, Chen Long, Acesaron and Momota Kendou.