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Guoyu goes to the Asian Championships: men’s singles face a tough fight, women’s doubles and mixed doubles look forward to defending
CCTV News: The Asian Championships, representing the highest honor of badminton in Asia, kicked off in Dubai, UAE on the 25th. Including the Chinese team, all the strong teams in the Asian badminton world have sent their main lineups to participate, striving to get good results, and continue their best state until the Sudirman Cup that starts in May.
Training for the Sudirman Cup
The points of the Asian Championships are at the same level as the World Badminton Super 1000 Tournament. This Asian Championship is also the last high-level event before the Sudirman Cup held in Suzhou, China in May. The Chinese team has achieved a full quota of 4 seats in the three individual events of women’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles, while men’s singles and women’s doubles have 3 seats each. In the first round of men’s singles, the Chinese team will face tough battles: Shi Yuqi faces the top seed and Indonesian star Jonathan across the net, and Lu Guangzu faces Thailand’s Wang Gaolun. Li Shifeng, the new All England champion who defends the lower half alone, faces Korean player Quan Yichen in the first round. The Olympic official website stated that the focus of the first round of the match will be between Chinese players Shi Yuqi and Jonathan, who have been in good form recently. Mori.
Singapore’s “Straits Times” said on the 24th that this year’s Asian Championships held in the UAE for the first time will be the last event on the international competition schedule before the start of the Olympic qualifying competition. The singles will be the main focus of the event: Although there will be no “No. 1 brother” in the men’s singles event, the Danish star Axelsen, but the other top 10 players in the men’s singles are all from Asia, and they will be ranked fourth in the world. Lee Zii Jia, the defending champion of Malaysia’s “No. 1 Brother” launched a challenge. It is worth mentioning that Kento Momota, the two-time Asian Championship and World Championship champion in 2018 and 2019, is absent from this competition. The former Japanese “big brother” is currently ranked 21st in the world. Before him, Kodai Naraoka, Kenta Nishimoto and Kenta Changshan will represent Japan in this Asian Championship.
Women’s singles focus on Japan and South Korea duel
In women’s singles, the defending champion, No. 6 seed Wang Zhiyi and No. 5 seed He Bingjiao are in the upper half, while No. 3 seeds Chen Yufei and Han Yue are in the lower half. The main opponent of these four Chinese players is Japanese star Akane Yamaguchi (first half District) and Korea’s An Seying (bottom half). There are also two former Asian Championship champions in the women’s singles draw-Chinese Taipei player Tai Ziying who won the championship in 2017 and 2018, and Thailand’s Intanon who was sealed in 2015. According to the Olympic official website, one of the highlights of the women’s singles is whether Akane Yamaguchi and An Seying can meet in the final. If the top seed Akane Yamaguchi and the second seed An Seying can enter the final, it will be the fourth time for the two this season. In a head-to-head confrontation, Akane Yamaguchi currently has the upper hand with 2 wins and 1 loss.
India’s “first sister” Sindhu is also a player worthy of attention. She is currently ranked 11th in the women’s singles world and was among the semi-finals of the Asian Championships last year. The Indian media “thebridge” stated, “As of now, India has won 17 medals in the Badminton Asian Championships, including 1 gold medal. India hopes that its badminton players can continue to improve.”
Doubles look at the combination of “mortal dust” and “IELTS”
Among the doubles lineups participating in this Asian Championships, the Chinese team sent 4 men’s doubles pairs Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, Wang Chang/Liang Weikeng, He Jiting/Zhou Haodong, Ren Xiangyu/Tan Qiang, and the women’s doubles 3 teams were Chen Qingchen/ Jia Yifan, Zheng Yu/Zhang Shuxian and Li Yijing/Luo Xumin, the 4 pairs of mixed doubles players are Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, Feng Yanzhe/Huang Dongping, Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin and Cheng Xing/Chen Fanghui.
Among them, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan have achieved two consecutive championships in the women’s doubles at the Asian Championships, and Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong were the winners of the mixed doubles at the Asian Championships last year. In Men’s Doubles, Indonesia is still the most powerful contender for the championship. Although the defending champions Rianto/Jacob are absent, Alfian/Adianto will compete as the top seeds. The Chinese team He Jiting/Zhou Haodong won the Spanish Masters Championship.
Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan were knocked out by the Korean team Kim So Young/Kong Hee Yong in the quarter-finals of the All England Championship last month. The two are expected to rebound strongly in this tournament. In terms of mixed doubles, the “IELTS” team that just won the All England Championship will play as the top seed in the Asian Championships this time. Whether they can meet with Feng Yanzhe/Huang Dongping, the second mixed doubles team of Guoyu, in the final will become a major attraction.