The 2023 Asian Badminton Individual Championships ended last night in Dubai, with the Chinese badminton team winning 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze, and the final day ended the Asian Championships with a mixed doubles civil war. As the outpost of this year's Su Cup, this Asian Championship is a test of Guoyu's recent preparations, both the experience gained and the problems exposed are of great significance to the Su Cup, which will start in half a month.
Temporary defeat is not terrible, regain confidence to welcome the Su Cup
In this Asian Championships, the Chinese team made the main effort, of which women's singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles all participated with a full quota of four seats, and finally the men's singles, women's singles and mixed doubles three singles broke into the final four, and the mixed doubles division final, ended with 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze. Compared with the previous high-level competitions this year, the performance of the national badminton at this Asian Championship has generally declined, and this feeling is most directly derived from the men's doubles and women's doubles.
Three of the four pairs of men's doubles stopped in the first two rounds, and all of them lost to the Indonesian men's doubles, with Wang Chang/Leung Wai Keng, who went the farthest, losing in the quarterfinals to Olympic champions Li Yang/Wang Qilin of Chinese Taipei, who also had the characteristics of the first half of the middle half. Although it once again fell behind when facing the Indonesian men's doubles, in fact, no pair of Indonesian men's doubles could advance to the final four, which once again shows that the current men's doubles situation is not monopolized by any one, but a group of dominance. Therefore, even if it is a three-time defeat to the Indonesian men's doubles, for the current preparation of the Su Cup, this should not become too much baggage and pressure for the national feather. At the end of the day, we will only play Indonesia once at most in the Su Cup, and only once in the men's doubles. When the narrow road meets, the fearless are not afraid.
The three women's doubles pairs lost this time were all Japanese or Korean pairs that reached the final four, including the final champion and runner-up combination, which also gave us the problem of preparing for the last half of the month. From the perspective of historical meetings and records, it is inevitable that the Chinese team will play Japan or South Korea every time on the way to the Su Cup, so the women's doubles team needs to pay more attention to the impact of this Asian Championship on the Su Cup. But from the perspective of preparing for the Su Cup, it is not entirely bad to find and expose the problem at the moment, it certainly represents the poor performance of this station, but since it has become a fact, it should be allowed to play a role in paving the way for the victory of the Su Cup.
Newcomers and veterans are all bright, and the Su Cup will be more exciting
Judging from this competition, the core main players of the Chinese team did not win the championship in each individual event, including "IELTS" won the runner-up, "Fanchen" stopped in the quarterfinals, Shi Yuqi stopped in the second round, Chen Yufei did not win the final, etc. However, from the perspective of the preparation cycle, the recent preparations of Guoyu all revolve around the Sudirman Cup, and the Asian Championship is only a test in the middle, and the state and body of the main players have not necessarily been adjusted to the best. In fact, many foreign players are also in this situation, such as Jonathan, Ratchano, Lee Mimiao, Watanabe Yudai/Higashino Yusa and other major opponents have withdrawn one after another. It can be seen that although it is a Super 1000 level, many good players also use this as a warm-up and test. As far as the current focus is concerned, everything will not be known until the Su Cup.
The biggest surprise of the Asian Championships must be the mixed doubles, and the birth of a new Asian Championship champion - Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin. The duo has been a blockbuster since last year, winning the Asian Championships for the first time, and winning the championship by beating the "IELTS" pair 2-0 in the final. At present, the squad of the Chinese team Su Cup has been announced, and the pair of champions of the Xinke Asian Championship has not been selected.
In addition, the men's singles surprised two players other than Shi Yuqi, Li Shifeng and Lu Guangzu joined hands to reach the quarterfinals, and Lu Guangzu, who was injured in March, finally won the bronze medal at the Asian Championships. In the just-announced Su Cup squad, these two men's singles are on the list, they will bring more freshness and space for the Chinese team to line up, and share the pressure of preparation for Shi Yuqi.
Looking ahead to the Su Cup, in addition to these new faces who may be selected, the timely recovery of some veterans gave badminton a resounding signal at the start of the Paris Olympic points competition. On the final day, the four matches except men's doubles ended in two sets, and the men's singles, women's singles, and women's doubles finals were all earlier famous, but there was a certain bottleneck in these two years, defeated the new masters who rose strongly in the past two years, especially Dai Ziying, who had lost his dominance in the past two years, and Yuki Fukushima/Ayaka Hirota, who was seriously injured and sick.
Dai Ziying won the championship with consecutive victories over Akane Yamaguchi and Ahn Zhiying, winning back confidence when he was no longer dominant. Yuki Fukushima/Aika Hirota apparently changed to a completely different style of play after Hirota Saika's surgery, although the coherence speed is slower, but it is more sharp, less afraid of multiple shots, more rhythmic, and more able to aim for timing. They won the championship with four consecutive victories over four major opponents of China, South Korea and Thailand, and when Chiyo Shida / Nara Matsuyama were not in a slump, it can be said that they regrouped the Japanese women's doubles and quietly regained the position of the Japanese pair. Coupled with the fact that two-time world champions Kazuhara Nagahara and Mayu Matsumoto also reached the semifinals, their form has rebounded, and the Paris Olympic competition in the Japanese women's doubles seems to return to the suspense of the Tokyo cycle, with three dilemmas. In any case, the recovery of these old opponents not only indicates that there will be more bright spots in the upcoming Su Cup, more possibilities for opponents to line up, the Chinese team needs to have more considerations and precautions, but also indicates that the Paris Olympic points competition, which officially starts today, will have more fierce competition and more highlights.
Asian Championship finals
Men's singles
Jin Ting 21-12 21-8 Luo Jianyou
Women's singles
Dai Ziying 21-10 21-14 An Washying
Men's doubles
Ranki Reddy/Shetty 16-21 21-17 21-19 Wang Yaoxin/Zhang Yuyu
Women's doubles
Yuki Fukushima/Aika Hirota 21-7 21-14 Haona Shira/Shaoki Lee
Mixed doubles
Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin 21-15 21-16 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong