(Xports News Reporter Kim Hyun-ki) As Ahn Se-young’s rival Chen Yu-fei came close to winning the championship with consecutive wins in the competition, China also came out to welcome it.
Recalling that Chen Yu-fei promised to win the World Championships in August and the Asian Games in September, I hoped that Chen Yu-fei would be able to beat Ahn Se-young once again in the second half of the year.
Chen Yufei defeated Pusarla Sindhu (India, ranked 13th in the world) in the quarterfinals of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Indonesia Masters (Super 500) held at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia on the 23rd (Korean time) with a game score of 2-0 (21-13 21-17) in 42 minutes and advanced to the semifinals.
Chen Yufei struggled until the early to mid-game in the second game, but started to calm down after that.
Pusarla Sindhu was a world-class top-ranked player who broke China’s era of dominance in women’s badminton singles in the 2010s along with Carolina Marin, including winning a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In April 2017, he rose to second place in the world rankings.
After an injury and marriage, she is entering international competitions again in earnest this year, and Chen Yufei overcame some difficulties in the beginning and won comfortably.
Chen Yufei, who was outshot 21-13 in game 1, tied the score at 12-12 in the middle of the game in game 2, then ran up 5 points to get up to 17-12.
Sindhu protested harshly against the decision, then committed suicide by receiving a red card and conceding one point.
Chen Yufei reached the semifinals in succession in the first two tournaments of this year, the Malaysia Open (Super 1000) and the India Open (Super 750). At the Malaysia Open, she suddenly withdrew due to a shoulder injury before the semifinals against Ahn Se-young. At the India Open, where she came out wearing a pink bandage, she lost to world number two Wang Zhiyi in the semifinals.
Unlike Ahn Se-young and Wang Zi-yi, who returned home after playing through the Indian Open, Chen Yu-fei, who saved her stamina by not participating in the BWF World Tour Finals at the end of last year, is even competing in the Indonesia Masters, a Super 500 event.
They won all three games against Sindhu 2-0 until the quarterfinals.
The Indonesia Masters is a BWF Super 500 tournament, so rather than top-ranked players, many mid- to upper-ranked players who need to accumulate BWF world ranking points will participate. The total prize money for the competition is also $500,000 (about 700 million won), which is much less than the $1.4 million for the Super 1000 tournament and $950,000 for the Super 750 tournament.
In the case of singles, BWF mandates that players ranked 1st to 15th in the world participate in all four Super 1000 competitions and six Super 750 competitions annually, but Super 500 is not a mandatory competition.
Chen Yufei appears to have participated in order to accumulate world ranking points and finally lift a trophy.
In fact, in this tournament, four women’s singles players ranked in the world’s top 10, including Putri Kusuma Wardani (Indonesia, 6th place), Ratchanok Inthanon (Thailand, 8th place), and Tomoka Miyazaki (Japan, 9th place), participated, but all of them except Chen Yu-fei were eliminated in the round of 16 or quarterfinals.
As a result, Chen Yufei’s power stands out even more.
Chinese media is also paying attention to Chen Yufei’s hard work in this tournament. At NetEase, the Chinese badminton world is hoping that Chen Yufei will return from his shoulder injury and that he will properly face Ahn Se-young in the second half of the game, especially since he played good defense in the match against Xin Du.
Positive responses poured in, such as “This is a tournament without Ahn Se-young, but we must win,” “As long as the injury gets better, as Chen Yu-fei said, I don’t think she will be behind Ahn Se-young at the World Championships in August or the Asian Games in September,” and “Ahn Se-young’s opponent is Chen Yu-fei rather than Wang Ziyi.”
Chen Yupei will face Karupateban Letsana (Malaysia, ranked 42nd in the world) in the semifinals on the 24th. Considering the gap in rankings, it appears that Chen Yufei will win easily after fighting for about 30 minutes.
Photo = Yonhap News
Reporter Kim Hyun-ki spitfire@xportsnews.com
