Sudirman Cup passion kicks off, Guoyu wins “good start”

Sudirman Cup passion kicks off, Guoyu wins “good start”

2023-05-15 14:40:56.0 Source: Xinhua Net
Authors: Ji Ye, Xu Shihao, Wang Hengzhi

In a fiery atmosphere comparable to the final, the 2023 Sudirman Cup World Badminton Mixed Team Championships kicked off in Suzhou on the 14th. The Chinese badminton team, aiming to defend their title, took only 117 minutes in the first round of the group stage and beat the Egyptian team with a total score of 5:0.

After more than three years, the badminton international competition returned to China again. Although there were no national feathers in the first three group matches that morning, the gymnasium of Suzhou Olympic Sports Center was still full. This kind of hot scene was extremely rare on the first day of the international badminton competition, so many of the world’s top players came Call it “shock”.

In the past 17 Sudirman Cups, Guoyu has won 12 championships, and won the championship in the last two consecutive times. In this home game, Zhang Jun, chairman of the Chinese Badminton Association, called out the goal of defending the title before the game. There are 16 teams in this competition, divided into four groups, and the top two in each group will advance to the quarterfinals. Guoyu is in Group A with Denmark, Singapore and Egypt.

In the evening game of the day, Guoyu ushered in the weakest Egyptian team in the group, but still sent a strong team to play. Amidst the enthusiastic cheers of the home fans, Feng Yanzhe/Huang Dongping, who are ranked seventh in the world in mixed doubles, Shi Yuqi and Chen Yufei, the world’s highest-ranked men’s and women’s singles players in the Guoyu team, Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, who are ranked sixth in the world in men’s doubles, and Zheng Yu/Zhang Shuxian, ranked third in the women’s doubles world, defeated the Egyptian team, which was far below their own, in straight sets.

After the game, Chen Yufei said that although the opponent is not strong, she still has to treat each ball rigorously, otherwise it will not help the next game. Shi Yuqi said frankly that there must be pressure at home, but compared to competing abroad, he definitely wants to express himself at home and strive to win the cup.

While cheering for Guoyu, the audience also had other “specific” games to watch. In the match between Denmark and Singapore, the strong dialogue between Axelsen and Luo Jianyou, the two men’s singles world champions, was one of them.

Axelsen reversed and won 2:1 on the same day, leading the Danish team to beat the Singapore team. After the game, Axelsen said that he was very happy to see so many people cheering for him. The Tokyo Olympic champion also joked to reporters in Chinese that now that he has two children, he has no time to learn Chinese, and he wonders if his Chinese level has deteriorated.

Another much-watched matchup is between Chinese Taipei and India, both in Group C known as the “Group of Death”. Men’s singles Zhou Tiancheng and women’s singles Tai Tzu-ying of the Chinese Taipei team beat strong opponents Prannoy and Sindhu respectively, helping the team win with a total score of 4:1. Another strong team in Group C, Malaysia, swept the Australian team with a total score of 5:0.

In the two games in Group D, Japan and South Korea beat England and France respectively.