The 2024 BWF World Tour will kick off on January 9 next year at the Malaysia Open, marking the return of badminton players from all over the world to compete for points at the Paris Olympics. Zhang Jun, president of the Chinese Badminton Association, said in a recent interview with the domestic ** that Chen Yufei's potential rivals in defending the women's singles title at the Paris Olympics will be South Korea's world queen An Seying and Japan's first sister Akane Yamaguchi, and did not include Chinese Taipei's first sister Tai Tzu Ying, who recently won the women's singles championship at the 2023 BWF World Tour Finals, into the competition. According to Zhang, the Paris 2024 Olympic points cycle starts on May 1, 2023 and lasts until April 28, 2024, and the entry list will be determined based on the Olympic points ranking on April 30, 2024.
Tai Tzu Ying will be aiming to win her first career gold medal at next year's Paris Olympics, and it is said that she will likely retire after the Games, which means that Paris could be the curtain call for her career. Zhang Jun also pointed out that South Korean queen Ahn Se Ying has achieved remarkable results this season, including winning 10 women's singles titles such as the World Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games, achieving an extraordinary season performance. He expressed hope that Chinese women's singles players other than Chen Yufei can jointly challenge major opponents like An Seying and Japanese ace Akane Yamaguchi. However, some fans don't fully agree with Zhang's claim about the main rival in the women's singles at the Paris Olympics. They pointed out that Tai Tzu Ying successfully reversed the two top players, An Xiying and Ma Lin, during her ascent to the top at the 2023 BWF World Tour Finals, while Ma Lin was the opponent that Chen Yufei, the first sister of the national feather, lost to twice in a row in this Finals.
In addition, although Tai Tzu Ying is not as dominant as before, she still won three titles this season: the Asian Championships, the Super 300 Chinese Taipei Open, and the World Tour Finals. The Star recently published an article on the outlook for the women's singles badminton competition at next year's Paris Olympics, noting that Tai Tzu Ying is still a strong contender for Olympic gold medals. According to the article, Tai Tzu Ying will compete for gold with China's defending champion Chen Yufei, South Korea's Ahn Se Ying, Japan's Akane Yamaguchi and Spain's Marin. Many fans believe that the Star's point of view is more objective because it includes the strength of the women's singles post-seal and does not leave out any of them. Even if the first sister of the national feather Chen Yufei defended her title in Paris against only An Seying and Akane Yamaguchi, there is no guarantee that Chen Yufei, who won one Super 1000 championship and three Super 750 titles this season, and reached the final at the Hangzhou Asian Games, can successfully defend her title.
After all, Chen Yufei's results against the world's top five this year are not overwhelming. According to the data, Chen Yufei's record this season against An Xiying is 3-6, Akane Yamaguchi is 1-4, Tai Tzu Ying is 1-0, and Marin is 4-2.