At the Indonesian Malang Badminton International Challenge, which ended last weekend, the Chinese team won two golds and two silvers, and the men's singles Weng Hongyang and the women's singles Gao Fangjie won the championship respectively. Since this week, the high-level tournament has resumed, and the first team of the national badminton team will face the test at the Danish Open and the Indonesia Masters respectively.
Last week's international challenge series was held in Malang, and the Chinese team sent the lower-ranked players in the first team and the newly launched "post-00s" to compete. China's Weng Hongyang, Lei Lanxi, Gao Fangjie, Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin reached the semifinals and all won in the semifinals, Weng Hongyang and Lei Lanxi met in the men's singles final.
In the men's singles final, Weng Hongyang defeated teammate Lei Lanxi 21-10, 21-10, and won the title for the second time after this year's Korea Open; In the mixed doubles final, the new national badminton pair Jiang Zhenbang / Wei Yaxin, who played in an international competition for the first time, played their own characteristics, and the Indonesian pair Ferdinasia / Vidjaja was always in a stalemate, but there was a slight lack in the handling of active errors and key points, and finally lost 18-21, 20-22.
In the women's singles final, Gao Fangjie, who competed internationally for the first time in three and a half years, faced Japan's World Junior Champion Riko Koriko, who returned from her comeback, showed her advantage and won easily 21-9, 21-11, and her last international victory was at the Korea Masters in December 2017.
In this competition, Gao Fangjie did not lose a game in five games on the way to winning the championship, which made a good start for her comeback. After recovering from an Achilles tendon injury at the Indonesia Masters in January 2019, Gao was originally scheduled to make a comeback at the Orleans Masters in February 2020, but the pandemic struck at that time and the comeback plan has been postponed until now. At present, her world ranking has fallen to 74th, and she needs to compete in a series of lower level events first, gradually striving to return to the high level of competition.
The Chinese team members who participated in last week's Malang Indonesia Challenge will stay in place this week and continue to participate in the Indonesia Masters (Super 100) held in the same place. This week's Masters level is higher than last week's Challenge, but the players have not changed much, and the Chinese team has higher points expectations.
On the other hand, the first-line players have arrived in Odense, Denmark, for the Danish Open (Super 750), which starts tomorrow. In this competition, the men's singles Shi Yuqi, Zhao Junpeng, and Lu Guangzu are all in the lower half, and Li Shifeng is still on the bench; The women's singles is still a five-player competition, He Bingjiao, Wang Zhiyi, Han Yue in the top half, Chen Yufei and Zhang Yiman in the second half; The men's doubles duo Liu Yuchen / Ou Yuyi and Liang Weikeng / Wang Chang are in the same 1/8 zone; Women's doubles Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan, Zhang Shuxian / Zheng Yu, Liu Xuanxuan / Xia Yuting are in the upper half, and Du Yue / Li Wenmei alone in the lower half; Mixed doubles Zheng Siwei / Huang Yaqiong in the bottom half, Guo Xinwa / Zhang Shuxian and new pair Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping in the top half.