The Chinese tennis player Chen Yufei – Photo: BWF
The new BWF (World Badminton Federation) season has been underway for almost a month, with three major tournaments in the Super 500 group and above, but the Chinese players have only managed to win one singles title so far.
That was the women’s singles title at the Indonesia Masters – a Super 500 tournament held on the afternoon of January 25th. Former world number one Chen Yufei defeated 19-year-old Pitchamon Opatniputh (Thailand) 23:21 and 21:13 in the final.
That’s nothing to brag about considering strong players like An Se Young and Yamaguchi didn’t take part in the Indonesia Masters.
Chen Yufei’s opponent in the final is Pitchamon, currently number 36 in the world rankings and still very inexperienced.
Chen Yufei’s victory was not enough to salvage a disastrous tournament for the 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 India Open, a Super 750 tournament, took place. However, China’s hopes of winning the men’s singles title were quickly dashed when world number one Shi Yuqi had to withdraw due to injury.
In women’s singles, China dreams of breaking the dominance of An Se Young, the world number one from South Korea. They sent three very strong players to this tournament: Wang Zhiyi (world number two), Chen Yufei (world number four) and Han Yue (world number five).
Wang Zhiyi made it to the finals, and as usual, she quickly lost to An Se Young.
Over the course of her career, Wang faced An Se Young in the final eleven times and lost ten times. Before the India Open, Wang was also defeated by the South Korean in the final of the Malaysia Open – the first Super 1000 tournament of the year.
In men’s singles, the Chinese players have completely disappointed since the beginning of 2026. At the Malaysia Open, Shi Yuqi – world number 1 – lost in the final to Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
At the India Open, not a single Chinese representative reached the quarterfinals after Shi Yuqi withdrew.
This worst-case scenario was repeated at the Indonesia Masters, where no Chinese men’s singles player reached the second round. And compared to the previous two Grand Slam tournaments, China performed even worse in the doubles competitions in Indonesia.
Three consecutive Super 1000, Super 750 and Super 500 tournaments took place within three weeks, heralding an exciting year of top-class badminton competitions. It’s hard to believe that China was only able to win one of a possible 15 titles.
Those: https://tuoitre.vn/sau-bong-da-trung-quoc-nhan-them-tin-buon-o-mot-mon-the-thao-quan-trong-20260125122804293.htm
