Vantaa: Tokyo Olympics women’s singles gold medalist – Chen Yufei has declared China have a chance to win the 2021 Sudirman Cup after the team comfortably took care of Kore in the semi-finals in Vantaa, Finland on Saturday.
On Saturday, China reshuffled its men’s doubles line-up, pairing Wang Yilyu and Liu Cheng in the men’s doubles match as its men’s doubles and men’s singles have become the weakest links for the 11-time champions at this edition of the Sudirman Cup. China lost both the men’s singles and men’s doubles in the Group A tie against Thailand on Wednesday, and against Denmark in the quarter-finals on Friday.
To accommodate this new line-up, the mixed doubles which usually being played as the fifth match of the tie was moved up to be the first match, so that Wang Yilyu could take some rest before his men’s doubles match.
The Tokyo Olympics mixed doubles champions, Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping kicked off the proceeding to beat Seo Seungjae/Shin Seungchan 21-14, 21-15 to put China ahead with 1-0.
Facing Heo Kwanghee who defeated World No. 1 Kento Momota in the Tokyo Olympics group stage and World No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan in the last 2021 Sudirman Cup Group B tie on Thursday, China’s World No. 10 Shi Yuqi came back from dropping the first set to topple Heo 17-21, 21-9, 21-11 to give China a 2-0 advantage.
At the critical third match, to keep her team’s hopes alive, Korea’s teenage badminton prodigy – An Se-young, would need to win the women’s singles match against Tokyo Olympics women’s singles gold medalist – Chen Yufei.
The 19-year-old fought hard to win the first game 21-14. Chen Yufei was trailing 7-9 in the second set, but after 13-13, Chen calmly reeled off 5 consecutive points to eventually took the second game 21-15. In the decider, Chen took advantage of the exhausted An to enter the interval with an 11-5 lead and never looked back as An faded to a 21-14, 15-21, 15-21 loss.
With Chen Yufei’s victory, China comfortably saw off Korea 3-0 to set up a final meeting with Japan on Sunday.
