Today is the first day of the May Day holiday, and the 2024 Chengdu Tangyou Cup has also entered the last match day of the group stage. The Chinese team ushered in the last game of the group stage yesterday, the women's team defeated the Indian team 5-0 in the morning, and the men's team encountered difficulties in the evening, the two-point doubles were sniped by the opponent, and finally won the singles and defeated the South Korean team 3-2, and the national feather team won the first place in the group.
Compared to the women's team, who defeated India 2-0 in the morning to win the group, the men's team won the group last night was much more difficult, and the two sides fought until the third singles in the deciding game to decide the winner. Before the game, the Chinese team and the South Korean team both won both games, both defeated the Canadian team and the Australian team in the same group 5-0 respectively, and the two sides faced each other last night to directly compete for the top spot in the group. The South Korean team has always had strong combat effectiveness in the team competition, and often staged a "counterattack" drama with small and broad views. Their impact was on display again in yesterday's team event, where they caused great difficulty for the national team in the first match.
In a singles matchup, world No. 2 Shi Yuqi took on world No. 47 Quan Yichen, who had only met once in 2018, when Shi Yuqi won 2-0. When they met again six years later, Quan Yichen opened with full firepower, taking a 21-14 lead. In the second game, Quan Yichen still maintained the lead, and Shi Yuqi has been in the stage of passively chasing points. The turning point of the game occurred at 16-17, and Shi Yuqi scored 5 points in a row to win the game. After the reversal of the second game, the state of the two sides was completely reversed, and Shi Yuqi scored 12 points in a row at 6-3 in the deciding game, leading 18-3, and finally sealed the victory 21-7.
As the captain of this year's Tang Cup, Shi Yuqi played full attendance in the group stage, but missed the pre-game team motivation due to warm-up in the first two games. Last night, Shi Yu peculiarily warmed up in advance, took out 5 minutes before the game to gather with his teammates, and the ten players were finally able to complete the motivation link neatly, and the "stone team" finally shouted out the slogan he designed himself. He said: "The first time I participated in the team motivation, it felt very new and different, and it was very morale-boosting. I was behind in the first two games of this match, and the sense of responsibility as a single player kept me looking for opportunities to turn around, and finally, I found that feeling in the last few extra shots of the second game. ”
With a 1-0 lead, Leung Wei Keng/Wang Chang and Seo Seung Jae/Kang Min Hyuk staged a strong duel in a pair, and both sides won one game each to enter the deciding game. With 11 points to go into the tiebreaker, "King Liang" maintained the lead and entered the break 11-8. After the break, the situation changed, and the South Koreans scored twice in a row to overtake the score and pull away. At the critical moment, the Korean team played more consistently, winning 21-15 to equalize the score for the Korean team. "The opponent has more experience in the team competition and has a more stable mentality in the final stage. Leung concluded after the game.
The 1-1 draw was drawn, and the second singles Lee Shi-feng came on the court to face South Korea's Lee You-kyu. It was the shortest of the five games, and Li Shifeng held the initiative throughout the whole game, winning 21-15, 21-9, and the Chinese team took a 2-1 lead again.
Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi's double-double matchup against temporary partners Kim Won-ho/Qi Dong-ju not only played three games again, but also took the same 66 minutes as a pair. The Koreans won 23-21 after winning two consecutive points after 19-20 in the deciding game, and the South Korean team equalized again.
2-2 drew again, and China's three singles Lu Guangzu went into battle. Adhering to the principle of "three singles must spell out momentum", he did not give South Korea's three singles Woo Seung-hoon any chance, and sealed the victory for the Chinese team 21-10, 21-15. After five and a half hours of fierce battle, the Chinese team defeated the South Korean team 3-2 and locked the first position in Group A, and the Korean team qualified second in the group.
In Group D, which ended last night, Denmark won the same way as China, winning 3-2 over Malaysia by winning three points in singles, and the latter qualified second in the group. This evening, Groups B and C of the Soup Cup will play their final round of group stage. Although Japan and Chinese Taipei in Group B and Indonesia and India in Group C have both secured their places in the quarter-finals, tonight's game will decide who wins the group. After all the matches tonight, the draw for the knockout round of the Soup Cup will take place immediately.