On April 30, the Chengdu 2024 Tangyou Cup entered its fourth match day. In the Thomas Cup match at 5 p.m., the European powerhouse Denmark played against the Malaysian team, and the current world No. 1 men's singles player Viktor Axelsen played as the Danish team's No. 1 singles player against the world's No. 10 Malaysian men's singles player Lee Zi Jia.
In the end, Axelsen defeated Li Zijia 21-16, 24-22 to take this precious point.
Axelsen defeated Li Zijia 2-0 Photojournalist Liu Haiyun
The clash between the two is reminiscent of the Thomas Cup in 2006, when Malaysian Men's Singles Lee Chong Wei lost to Danish Men's Singles Peter Gade in the semi-finals. As the leaders of their respective teams, Lee Chong Wei and Peter Gade are known as the "Four Kings of Badminton" along with China's Lin Dan and Indonesia's Tawfik Hidaya, while Lee Chong Wei and Gade are the most famous uncrowned kings of badminton.
2012 Thomas Cup group stage, Denmark VS Malaysia, Lee Chong Wei retired with an injury shortly after the opening, Gade won without a fight According to Visual China
Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)
In 19 years, he did not win the World Series
As an iconic figure of Malaysian badminton and Lin Dan's lifelong enemy, Lee Chong Wei is well-known to many Chinese fans. From his first meeting in 2005 to his retirement, he and Lin Dan have been facing each other for 13 years and have staged 40 "Lin Li Wars". In terms of head-to-head records, Lee Chong Wei is at a disadvantage with 12 wins and 28 losses. Lee Chong Wei really became known to the public at the 2004 Malaysia Open, where he won his first Open Men's Singles title. In 2006, Lee Chong Wei reached No. 1 in the world rankings, becoming only the third Malaysian men's singles player to reach the top of the world No. 1 since 1980. Since January 1, 2009, Lee Chong Wei has occupied the men's singles world No. 1 position for 349 weeks, setting a record for the longest time in the badminton world.
But in the world's major events, Lee Chong Wei has never won a championship and is known as the "uncrowned king". In 2008, 2012 and 2016, Lee Chong Wei was the first badminton player in history to reach the men's singles final at three consecutive Olympic Games, but lost to Lin Dan twice and Chen Long once, winning the men's singles silver medal for three consecutive times. In 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015, he reached the final of the World Championships four times, and also lost to the Chinese player. In addition, Lee Chong Wei has also participated in the Asian Games three times, winning one men's singles silver medal, two men's singles bronze medals and two team bronze medals.
After the competition, he decided to continue preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. However, in September 2018, Lee Chong Wei was diagnosed with early-stage nasopharyngeal cancer. After 33 sessions of electrotherapy, Lee Chong Wei returned to training in his second week back in Malaysia. His goal is to win "Malaysia's first Olympic gold medal". The doctor told Lee Chong Wei's mother and wife, "I hope Zong Wei will not continue, he is too stressed, and this is all caused by stress." On June 13, 2019, on the advice of doctors and his family, Lee Chong Wei announced his retirement. At the press conference, at the moment when he said "retirement", he cried bitterly and bid farewell to his badminton career.
As for the soup cup, in the 19 years of Li Zongwei's career before retiring, he won 1 runner-up and 4 third places with the team, but he missed the Tang Cup championship.
On June 13, 2019 local time, Malaysia, Lee Chong Wei attended a press conference to announce his retirement, leaving his beloved badminton in tears According to IC photo
Peter Gade (Denmark)
Nine trips to the soup cup but missed the championship
Also missing out on the World Championship on several occasions is Danish badminton team leader Peter Gade. Gade's results in three Olympic Games are quite regrettable, in 2000 he lost to Ji Xinpeng in the semi-finals, and lost to Xia Xuanze in the bronze medal match, finishing only fourth. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, he lost to Tawfik in the semi-finals and in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he lost to Lin Dan in the semi-finals and again reached the quarterfinals. In the singles quarterfinals of the 2012 London Olympics, Gade lost to Chen Long, who was 12 years younger than him.
The soup cup is also a big regret of Gade's career. Since 1996, Gade has participated in 9 Soup Cup competitions. The 1996 Thomas Cup in Hong Kong, China, was Gade's soup cup debut, when the Danish team won all the group stage and defeated the Chinese team in the semi-finals to reach the final, but unfortunately the Danish team lost 0-5 to the strong Indonesia team in the final, and Gade missed the first championship. In the following three editions of the Soup Cup from 1998 to 2002, the Danish team missed the final three times. In 2004 and 2006, Gade led the Danish team to the final twice, but fate played such a trick, the Danish team lost to the Chinese team 1-3 and 0-3 in the final respectively, and missed the championship again. In 2008 and 2010, Denmark suffered even less results, losing in the quarter-finals and withdrawing from the title race.
2012 was Gade's last trip to the Cup, and after losing in the semi-finals, he said: "It's a shame to lose, but no matter what happens, my feelings for the Cup will not change, and the memories of the Thomas Cup will never fade. ”
In addition to setting a record of nine Thomas Cup appearances, Gade has created an insurmountable myth with one World Championship runner-up, four World Championship runners-up, three Thomas Cup runners-up and two Sudirman Cup runners-up in his 20-year badminton career.
2012伦敦奥运会上的盖德 图据IC photo
Among the "Four Heavenly Kings" in the badminton world, only Li Zongwei and Gade have not won the World Series championship, which can be described as the two uncrowned kings in the history of badminton.
Lin Dan retired at the latest, and he only announced his farewell to the Chinese team in July 2020. However, the "kings" who faded out of the court did not stay away from badminton. On April 17, as the 100-day countdown to the Paris Olympic Games ushered in, the "Four Heavenly Kings" of badminton gathered at the Sino-French Badminton Charity Ceremony to continue to work together to promote the development of this sport in the world.
The "Four Heavenly Kings" of the badminton world gathered at the Sino-French Badminton Charity Ceremony, with Gade as the fourth from the left and Lee Chong Wei as the fifth from the left
Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, Gade and Tawfik (from left to right) recently appeared at the Paris 100 Sino-French Badminton Charity Ceremony
Red Star News reporter Pei Han Zhou Yao
Edited by Cheng Li
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