On December 14, the 2023 BWF Year-end Finals continued to be held in Hangzhou. In the men's singles, China's Shi Yuqi lost to Indonesia's No. 1 Ginting in the men's singles after beating world No. 1 Axelsen in the first round, and the situation of qualifying from the group became uncertain again. Chen Yufei, the national feather women's single, defeated the Chinese-American player Zhang Beiwen, and two wins in two games have determined a place in the top four. In the men's doubles and women's doubles competitions, all four pairs of national feathers won, but only one of them, "Fan Chen", has been confirmed to qualify from the group.
Shi Yuqi's opponents in the same group are world No. 1 Axelsen, and the No. 1 men's singles players of the Japan and Indonesian associations, Kodai Naraoka and Ginting, the group is indeed not very good, and at least two of them must be won in order to advance to the semi-finals. In the first round of the tournament on the 13th, he played extremely well, after 6 years, after losing 8 consecutive opponents, he finally defeated Ancern with the advantage of home field, which can be said to be a big upset in the tournament, and also laid a good foundation for the group qualification. However, in the turn of the day, he was reversed by Ginting 1-2 in the match with an absolute advantage in the head-to-head record, and lost the initiative to advance to the semi-finals, which made the fans very disappointed.
In this game, Shi Yuqi played relatively smoothly in the first game, winning 21-11 relatively easily. But from the second game, Shi Yuqi seemed to suddenly lose momentum and completely lost his state, which was very puzzling, and was equalized by the opponent with a score of 7-21. In the decisive game, Shi Yuqi wanted to win but had become powerless, and lost again 17-21. In doing so, Ginting won two in a row and became the only winner in the group. If Shi Yuqi wants to qualify, he must defeat Kodai Naraoka in the final battle. There is a possibility that all three players in this group will lose 2-1 and the other will lose all, so even if Shi Yuqi wins 2 wins, it may not guarantee promotion, and it can be said that his future is uncertain.
Chen Yufei had a smooth run in the Women's Singles, beating Chinese-American Beiwen Zhang 2-0 in the second round of the group stage to rewrite the record to 6-1. Chen Yufei qualified early with two wins in two games, because Spain's Olympic champion Ma Lin also defeated China's Han Yue with a score of 2-0, and Ma Lin and Chen Yufei have already qualified together regardless of the outcome of the final round. Chen Yufei's promotion to the semifinals also meant that Han Yue was eliminated, and only one player in the Chinese women's singles qualified for the semifinals.
In the four men's and women's doubles matches held that day, all four pairs of national feather pairs won. Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan defeated Indonesia's double-pull pair Rahayu Ramadanti 2-0 (21-14) and advanced to the semifinals with two consecutive wins. When the young Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning faced the Japanese combination Mayu Matsumoto and Kana Nagahara, the two sides drew 1-1 and entered the tiebreaker, the Japanese pair injured themselves, Mayu Matsumoto mistakenly hit the ball on the eye of his partner, Nagahara and Kana were in unbearable pain and could not see normally, so they had to choose to retire and could not participate in the final round of the group stage. In this way, in the final round, as long as Liu Shengshu Tan Ning defeats Rahayu Ramadanti, he can qualify as the second in the group.
In the Men's Doubles, the "Twin Towers" pair Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi continued to play triumphantly, and the two were in good form in this match, winning 2-1 against Malaysia's Chia Ting Feng and So Wei Yi, and the scores were close in all three games, 19-18 and 22-20, winning two consecutive victories. World No. 1 Leung Wai Hang Wang Chang's opponent was Japan's world champion pair Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, who won the first game 23-21 after a hard-fought battle, and dominated the second game, winning 21-17 and winning the first victory of the finals 2-0. In the third round of the group stage on the 15th, as long as Liang Wang defeats Xie Su's combination, and the "Twin Towers" only need to win one game against their Japanese partner, the two pairs of players can jointly lock in the semi-finals.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Liu Ailin.
Edited by Chu Peng.