China’s Sports Setback: Another Loss After Football

The new BWF (Badminton World Federation) season started almost a month ago, with three major tournaments in the Super 500 group and beyond, but Chinese players have only managed to win one singles title so far.

This is the title of the women’s singles of the Indonesia Masters, a Super 500 tournament which took place on the afternoon of January 25. Former world number one Chen Yufei beat 19-year-old Pitchamon Opatniputh of Thailand 23-21, 21-13 in the final.

There is nothing to brag about, considering that big-name players like An Se Young and Yamaguchi did not participate in the Indonesia Masters.

Chen Yufei’s opponent in the final is Pitchamon, currently ranked 36th in the world and still very inexperienced.

Chen Yufei’s victory was not enough to save a disastrous tournament for Indonesian players, who failed to win any of the men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles or mixed doubles events.

A week earlier, the Indian Open, a Super 750 tournament, took place. China’s hopes of winning the men’s singles title were quickly dashed when world number one Shi Yuqi withdrew due to injury.

In women’s singles, China dreams of dethroning An Se Young, the South Korean world number one. She sent three very high-level players to this tournament: Wang Zhiyi (world number 2), Chen Yufei (world number 4) and Han Yue (world number 5).

Wang Zhiyi advanced to the finals, and as usual, she quickly lost to An Se Young.

Throughout his career, Wang faced An Se Young 11 times in finals, losing 10 times. Before the Indian Open, Wang was also beaten by the South Korean player in the final of the Malaysia Open, the first Super 1000 tournament of the year.

In men’s singles, Chinese players have been a real disappointment since the start of 2026. At the Malaysian Open, Shi Yuqi, world number 1, lost in the final to Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

At the Indian Open, China didn’t even have a single representative reach the quarterfinals after Shi Yuqi withdrew.

This disaster scenario was repeated at the Indonesia Masters, with no Chinese men’s singles player reaching the second round. And compared to the previous two major tournaments, China had even more disappointing performances in doubles in Indonesia.

For three weeks, three consecutive tournaments of Super 1000, Super 750 and Super 500 took place, launching a year rich in high-level badminton competitions. It’s hard to believe that China has only won one title out of fifteen possible.