On the second day of the 2022 Thomas Cup group stage, the powerful Chinese team encountered a strong impact from the young team of france. China won the match 5-0, but France showed off their youthful hard work, going head-to-head in several games and playing three innings.
Popov Jr., a hero of the French team, performed well in his first match against Lu Guangzu, the whole game took 1 hour and 58 minutes, Popov showed skill and courage, and overcame the disappointment of losing three innings in the first set, dragging the game into the decider after the end of the tense game in the second set.
In the third set, the Frenchman led 13-8. At this point Popov began to cramp because the rhythm of the field was disrupted.
"It was a tough game, very long – I think it was the longest game I've ever played on the pitch. My opponent won physically today. My tactics were better in the third inning, I was 13-9 ahead, and then when he stopped for medical support, my rhythm failed and losing that rhythm could have caused cramps. ”
"We have a talented team and the young people in the team are full of energy. Today we have the ability to compare ourselves, maybe not win every game, but we can make it difficult for China to win the game, that's for sure. That's what we showed in the first game. ”
In the second match, Arnault Merkel led Zhao Junpeng 15-10, but then lost the advantage and lost the game; Del Lu and Villiger also bit the score in the match against He Jiting/Zhou Haodong.
After young player Lanier lost 14-21, 14-21 to Li Shifeng, Popov Jr. took his older brother Big Popov to the men's doubles. The Popov brothers defeated Ou Xuanyi/Liu Yuchen in the first set, after which the Chinese team made a comeback to lock the score at 5-0.
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In the Thomas Cup Group D match, Li Zijia led Malaysia to a 5-0 victory over England. Malaysia were strained in the opening men's doubles match, with Ben Ren/Sean Wendy taking the first match while Tse Ding-feng/Su Weiyi took the lead in both the second and third sets. In the second singles match, Wong was also dragged into the decider by Toyossen, but Malaysia overall had the upper hand, winning three games in less than 40 minutes.
In the same group, Japan did not have much trouble in the first match against the United States, in the singles match, Naraoka Kodai and Harino Lu ranked behind Nishimoto Kenta, and in the doubles match, Matsui Keiichiro and Takeuchi Yoshiken appeared as two-doubles. The only match with more than 30 minutes was the first singles game, with Nishimoto beating Enrique Asunción 21-13 21-12.
Denmark sent out singles stars, and in the Thomas Cup Group B were also unaffected by Algeria. In doubles, Astrup rested, with his partner Rasmussen paired with Christiansen, while the second doubles was paired by Jeep Bay and Ras Morhead.
In the evening Uber Cup match, the Chinese team only encountered a small challenge in the first game between Chen Yufei and Azul Mendi, but in the end the Olympic champion still defeated the opponent 2-0, and in the other matches, He Bingjiao, Wang Zhiyi, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, Du Yue/Li Wenmei easily defeated the opponent to help the Chinese team beat Spain 5-0.