The entire world badminton world has to admit that 2023 is indeed a year of celebration for Chinese badminton. Because in 2023, Chinese badminton has a surprisingly outstanding performance, especially in the team arena. In individual events, with the outstanding performance of athletes who are still in their prime, such as Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, Chen Yufei and Li Shifeng, the Chinese badminton team is still the most successful association.
After 1,185 days, the Chinese arena welcomes the world of badminton again
Fans still remember the pity of the 2022 finals moving from Guangzhou to Bangkok, Thailand. Due to the epidemic, Chinese mainland has not held international badminton competitions for a long time.
In 2023, Chinese mainland, with its strong mass base, opened its arms to international badminton. What a year it has been for the BWF and for the Chinese fans!
After a long wait of 1,185 days, the international badminton competition has finally returned to the mainland. In March 2023, the Ruichang International Badminton Super 100 Tournament opened at the Ruichang Sports Park Gymnasium in Jiangxi Province.
Three years later, the Chinese audience once again had the opportunity to watch the world's top players in action, and their enthusiastic response really touched many of the world's top players. In 2023, China hosted more badminton tournaments: Hangzhou Asian Games, Changzhou China Open, Shenzhen Li Ning China Masters, Hangzhou HSBC BWF World Tour 2023 Finals. China's business value has always been the most important to ignore.
Suzhou can be called the business card of 2023
At 5 p.m. on May 20, fans who watched the semifinals of the 2023 Sudirman Cup Mixed Team Championship did not expect that they would see this game in the early morning of the 21st, and they did not expect that they would truly witness the greatest Jedi counterattack of the Chinese team, an "epic" battle.
Defending champions China dug a hole in the first game: in the first mixed doubles, neither side sent their top pair, and China hid the "IELTS", sending Feng Yanzhe/Huang Dongping against Japan's No. 2 mixed doubles Kyohei Yamashita/Naru Shinoya. As a result, he lost the first mixed doubles match.
From this game, you can see how much psychological pressure there is to play at home.
In the second men's singles, Shi Yuqi withstood the pressure and defeated Japan's Kodai Naraoka. After 90 minutes of tug-of-war, the total score for the Chinese team was tied 1:1.
Women's singles Chen Yufei faced Akane Yamaguchi, whoever wins will take the initiative, but Chen Yufei lost two games to the opponent very passively, and the Chinese team fell behind with a total score of 1:2.
When China's "New Twin Towers" Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, who are slowly walking, come on the court, they are faced with the fact that winning will give Fan Chen a chance to play, and if they lose, the game will be over and the Chinese team will not be able to enter the final. They will face Japan's No. 1 Men's Doubles Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi. The Chinese team lost the first game 17-21. In the second game, Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi won 21:19, and the Japanese pair played to 20:16 in the deciding game.
At this time, all we can expect is a miracle, and a miracle does happen. Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi saved 4 match points in a row, chased to 20 draws, and then scored two points to defeat the Japanese pair 22:20, leveling the score to 2:2, and getting the opportunity to play the world's number one women's doubles Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan. China's current world No. 1 Women's Doubles cleans-cut victory over former Japanese No. 1 Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota in Women's Doubles. The game was played in the early morning of the 21st, and the Chinese team narrowly defeated the Japanese team 3-2 and entered the finals.
The BWF once sighed: ONE POINT TOO FAR FOR JAPAN, this title is very expressive. The meaning is that this point is too far away for Japan.
From the game that started at 5 p.m. to the moment when the Chinese team won the "epic" Sudirman Cup semi-finals in the early morning of the next day, the 7,000 fans in the stadium stood up and sang "I Love You China", which was very touching. You know, when Japan led 19-13 and 20-16 in the third game of Men's Doubles, few people still had hope for the Chinese team.
After crawling from the brink of collapse, the unstoppable home team China took on South Korea in the final. In mixed doubles
The IELTS pair defeated the Korean pair in three games after falling behind in the opening game and won the first point.
Shi Yuqi defeated Li Youkui 2-0. Chen Yufei defeated An Xiying 2-0, making the Chinese team win the championship of this year's Sudirman Cup. The Chinese team has won the Sudirman Cup in Nanning in 2019 and Vantaa in Finland in 2021, and Suzhou has won the Suzhou Cup for the third time in a row this year and the 13th time in the Soviet Cup. This is truly a remarkable victory.
The Chinese team achieved excellent results in the team competition
Memorably, the Sudirman Cup was not the only team win for the Chinese team. Earlier this year, the Chinese team sent a young non-main team, including Feng Yanzhe, He Jiting, Zhou Haodong, Tan Qiang, Ren Xiangyu, Lei Lanxi, Zhao Junpeng, Jiang Zhenbang, Huang Dongping, Cai Yanyan, Gao Fangjie, Wei Yaxin, Li Yijing, Luo Xumin, Tan Ning, Liu Shengshu, etc.
The team, who had no expectations, won the Asian Badminton Mixed Team Championship in Dubai.
In the third round of the previous group stage and the quarterfinals, the Chinese team narrowly won 3-2. In the semi-finals against India, India sent the main force, in the quarter-finals lost 0-2 to Li Zijia's Lei Lanxi defeated Prannoy, Gao Fangjie defeated former world champion Sindhu, although the men's doubles pair He Jiting/Zhou Haodong and the women's doubles Tan Ning/Liu Shengshu both lost to the Indian pair, but the Chinese team in the team competition always stood up, and the junior mixed doubles teenager Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin turned the tide for the team to lock the victory.
In the final against the South Korean team, the men's singles Lei Lanxi and the women's singles Gao Fangjie won, the men's doubles He Jiting/Zhou Haodong lost, and the women's doubles Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning defeated South Korea's Zheng Nayin/Li Shaoxi 2:0, and the Chinese team locked the championship.
In the Hangzhou Asian Games, there were also heroes who turned the tide, the Chinese men's team fell behind India 0-2, the third Li Shifeng sounded the horn of counterattack for the Chinese team, Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi and Weng Hongyang helped the Chinese team win.
The heroes of the individual competitions are still there
Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong in the mixed doubles of the Chinese team in the two doubles events, and Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan in the women's doubles. They and they are the leaders of these two projects. With them, the Chinese team will not return empty-handed in the tour.
Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong won seven titles, including a gold medal in the mixed doubles individual event at the Asian Games, and three titles in four Super 1000 competitions.
Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, on the other hand, won the World Championships, Asian Games and World Tour Finals, as well as two of the four Super 1000 titles, despite being beaten by the No. 1 and No. 2 women's doubles teams from Japan and South Korea.
Although Chen Yufei admitted the top spot in the women's singles, she won the opening titles of Denmark and France in five consecutive finals at the end of the year.
The rise of the next generation of newcomers
Li Shifeng, who loves to flip heels, won the All England Championship and the Asian Games.
Young players of the national feather emerged this year, such as Li Shifeng and Weng Hongyang in men's singles, Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning in women's doubles, and Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin in mixed doubles.
The junior women's doubles pair of Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning won their first Super 750 tournament in the second half of the year, and the young pair has made a leap forward from youth to adulthood, and although Tan Ning will have more difficulties in making the switch from singles to doubles, it means that they will have more room to improve in the future.
China's biggest gain this year has been doubles. With the retirement of Olympic champion Wang Yilyu, Feng Yanzhe, who replaced him, showed what he could do, and he teamed up with Huang Pingping to win seven titles and end the year in fourth.
Another young mixed doubles pair, Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin, competed at a lower level last year, but this year they won the Asian Badminton Championships and the French Open, and are ranked fifth in the world.
The mixed doubles pair of Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin was named "Most Improved Player of the Year" by the BWF. They beat Malaysia's Tan Tang Kit/Du Yi Wei and Denmark's Kim Astrup/Anders Scalup Rasmussen.
Also in their first season on the tour, Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning broke into the top 10 of the world rankings with four World Tour titles. The young duo won the Most Promising Award of the Year.
In the more competitive men's doubles, after winning four titles including the China Open with their partner Leung Wai Hang/Wang Chang in 2022, they are currently ranked No. 1 in the world and carrying the banner of the national feather men's doubles. The top 10 in the Men's Doubles world rankings are all capable of winning Olympic gold medals, with China currently having Leung Wai Keng/Wang Chang and Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi hovering in the top eight. There is also a pair of potential combinations, He Jiting/Ren Xiangyu, who are rapidly moving up the rankings.
Therefore, 2023 is the best year for Chinese badminton. China always has the best players to put them at the top of the game, while other rookies are already in contention for the title. As China showed at the Sudirman Cup, even when they are in danger, there are always heroes who step up.
With that, the 2023 badminton season has come to an end, and the 2024 season will start in Kuala Lumpur a week later. The Chinese badminton team is currently undergoing winter training at the Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sports of China. In just over seven months, the Paris Olympics will kick off. The Chinese badminton team will go all out to win five individual Olympic titles. At present, what they need to do is to qualify for the full quota of five individual events by April 28 next year. This requires the national team members to prepare carefully for each competition.
The Chinese badminton team in the Olympic year is worth looking forward to.