At the National Games, Chen Long lost 0-2 to Shi Yuqi
On the evening of October 17, Beijing time, the final of the 2021 Thomas Cup ended. Defending champions China lost 3-0 to Indonesia, missed the 11th Soup Cup title, and missed the opportunity to win the three cups of Tang Yusu. This result also makes us sigh again: Guoyu is in urgent need of male leaders.
From the first time he topped the world in 2002 to the fourth place in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, Lin Dan, born in 1983, has played the backbone of the Chinese badminton team for nearly 20 years. During this time, Bao Chunlai, a contemporary of him, retired, and chen long of his generation was already a veteran in his early 30s.
Due to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, Lin Dan, who originally planned to stick to another Olympic Games, chose to retire in July 2020. Chen Long, who was born in January 1989, instantly carried the banner of "One Brother of The National Feather". With everyone's expectations, Chen Long withstood great pressure and finally won the men's singles silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. After losing to Shi Yuqi in the semifinals of the National Games, he announced that he would retire due to injury and go home to rest. In this way, the national feather men's team suddenly became a group of "little devils".
The men's singles players who participated in the Thomas Cup this time have 3 young players who have been named by Chen Long before and mentioned that they may take over the banner of "one brother".
Shi Yuqi data map
Shi Yuqi, 25, is currently ranked 10th in the world and is currently the second men's singles team in the Chinese team after Chen Long. Before suffering a severe injury to a torn ankle ligament in July 2019, he briefly reached the second place in the world rankings. However, after a long period of recuperation and a period of closure, Shi Yuqi's movement and reaction status have declined compared with before the injury. However, after the Olympic Games, Shi Yuqi performed well at the National Games and the previous Sudirman Cup, but the retirement of Momota Kendou in the semi-finals once again pushed him to the cusp of the storm.
Li Shifeng, 21, won the men's singles gold medal at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games and won the national badminton championship in the same year, becoming the focus of the future training object of the national badminton men's singles. After reaching the top 4 of all three Super 100 Open tournaments in 2019, he did not go out to play much due to the impact of the epidemic. Li Shifeng, who participated in the Thomas Cup for the first time, performed quite well in the previous matches, especially in the semi-final victory over Kanta Tokiyama, which made a great contribution to the Chinese team's 2-1 victory over Japan. But in the final, he failed to stage a good reversal, losing 1-2 to Christie.
Weng Hongyang, 22, was also transferred to the national team as a sparring partner during the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics. As a left-handed player, his comprehensive skills and calculative playing style have also attracted everyone's attention. He himself regarded Momota Kendou as the object of "stealing the teacher". In this soup cup, Weng Hongyang also played the role of three singles, so there were not many opportunities to play.
Except for the 3 of them, Lu Guangzu was basically Shi Yuqi's replacement. The silver medalist in the men's singles at the SING National Games has also become one of the seven new world champions in the previous Sudirman Cup competition. However, on the soup cup, his chances of playing are not very many. In the final, he replaced Shi Yuqi with a single, and in the case of winning one set first, he finally lost 2 consecutive innings and had no chance to open the door.
Overall, although these young generals have their own characteristics and their level is good, they have not yet reached the level of being able to give people a "reassuring pill" like Lin Dan, and the banner of "one brother" is still no one can carry it.
(Qingling)