Suzhou, May 5 (ZXS) -- The Chinese badminton team won the Sudirman Cup at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium on the 22st to achieve three consecutive championships. Throughout the cup, Guoyu overcame strong opponents and trained the team on the way to winning the championship. The Sudirman Cup, the first points tournament of the Paris Olympics, has come to an end, and the future challenge of Guoyu has just begun.
After the match, Zhang Jun, chairman of the Chinese Badminton Association, bluntly said that the Sudirman Cup Chinese team had three most difficult opponents: Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. Throughout the knockout round, Guoyu faced three teams, and although they all won victories, it can still be seen that these three teams have considerable strength and may become strong opponents on the road to preparing for the Paris Olympics.
Although Indonesia lost 1:4 to China in the quarterfinals, they repaired Rivaldi/Vidjiajia, who were repaired after the opening of the first mixed doubles match, once won one point from China's top mixed doubles pair Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, which shows the impact of their mixed doubles newcomers. The other mixed doubles pair of Guoyu, Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping, exposed their mentality problems in this cup, and their stability needs to be strengthened.
Indonesia has the advantage in the men's event. The Indonesian men's singles and doubles stars Jinting and Jonatan played a little fluctuating in this cup, but their overall combat effectiveness is still undoubted. In men's doubles, the Indonesian pair of Alfian/Adianto failed to meet the Chinese team head-on, but its dominance in men's doubles is still difficult to shake in a short time.
Japan are old rivals of the Chinese team, and in the semifinals they almost knocked out China by scoring one point thanks to the excellent play of the mixed doubles pair Kyohei Yamashita / Nanaru Shinoya. Fortunately, the national men's doubles team Liu Yuchen/Ou Weiyi withstood the pressure at a critical moment and scored 1 points in a row to stage a shocking reversal.
The Japanese team did not advance smoothly in this competition. In the final round of the group stage, they were swept 0-5 by their group rivals South Korea to qualify as second in the group. In the quarterfinals against Thailand, Japan fought hard for 1 hours to win 4:7, and all three pairs of doubles pairs played well under pressure.
Although Akane Yamaguchi, who ranked world number one in the women's singles, failed to defeat South Korea's An Zhiying in the group stage, and the knockout round was also frequent, her strength was still online after her 2-0 victory over Chen Yufei, the first sister of the women's singles in the semifinals. Japanese men's singles player Kodai Naraoka is a rising rookie in the Japanese team, and after the tempering of the competition, he may become a difficult opponent in the men's singles of the national badminton in the future.
The South Korean team defeated the Chinese team to win the Uber Cup in 2022, and the female players in the team are quite strong. Among them, women's singles player An Zhiying lost to Chen Yufei in the final, but her strength is still not to be underestimated. Before the Sudirman Cup, Chen Yufei played three times in 2023 and ended in defeat. As the first badminton player in the history of the Korean team to be shortlisted for the national team as a middle school student, she will be in great form in 2023, reaching the final of three consecutive world-class competitions in the opening year, and defeating Japan's Akane Yamaguchi and Spain's Marin to win two championships respectively.
In addition to the above three teams, there are other players in the Sudirman Cup who have performed well. Born in 2001, Thailand's Kunravut is Thailand's first men's champion of the World Junior Championships in badminton, and has won three consecutive gold medals in the men's singles of the World Junior Championships. He lost to Denmark's Anselon at the World Championships in Tokyo to win a historic silver medal for Thailand. In this Sudirman Cup, he defeated Indonesia's Jonatan in the group stage and defeated Japan's Naraoka Kodai 2-0 in the knockout round, showing excellent competitive form.
Zhang Jun said after the race that the victory was a good start for the Paris Olympics, but the national badminton team members still need to remember that stepping off the podium will have to start from scratch. "I hope everyone will play every race, every ball, every point, and continue to work hard for the top podium at the Paris Olympics." (End)