China Open Badminton Championships: Mixed Results for the Chinese Team on the First Day

The 2024 VICTOR China Open Badminton Championships kicked off in Changzhou, Jiangsu on the 17th. The Chinese team had mixed results on the first day. Shi Yuqi and Liang Weikeng/Wang Chang successfully advanced to the top 16, but Lu Guangzu and several doubles pairs were eliminated.

The China Open is a BWF Super 1000 event, but as the Olympics had just ended, many top players withdrew from the competition, including Paris Olympic women’s singles champion An Se-young, China’s top women’s singles player Chen Yufei, and Paris Olympic mixed doubles champions Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong.

As the top seed in men’s singles, Shi Yuqi won the first round against Thai player Wang Gaolun 21:10, 21:19 in straight sets. He will face Indonesian star Ginting in the next round. Shi Yuqi joked after the game that he had to go to work because he did not play well in the Olympics.

Compared to Shi Yuqi who competed non-stop after the Olympics, the Chinese men’s doubles Liang Weikeng/Wang Chang made their first appearance after the Olympics at the China Open. As a result, they almost “turned over” in the first game. Facing the French Popov brothers, the two were behind 18:20 and had to chase 4 points to get through. After winning 2:0, the two said that they were still gradually adapting to the atmosphere of the game, and they were thinking more about their personal performance and tactics during the game. Liang Weikeng also said: “I feel that our vision is broader. Before the Olympics, many ball lines, when there is a certain amount of pressure, we may not play so open.”

Among the other players of the Chinese team that day, women’s singles Wang Zhiyi, women’s doubles Li Wenmei/Zhang Shuxian, and mixed doubles Cheng Xing/Zhang Chi won respectively. Men’s singles player Lu Guangzu fought hard for 69 minutes and lost 1:2 to Chinese Taipei player Li Jiahao. The other two pairs of men’s doubles combinations Chen Boyang/Liu Yi and Xie Haonan/Zeng Weihan also lost, and the mixed doubles combination Guo Xinwa/Chen Fanghui was reversed by a pair of Danish players.

Most of the matches on the first day were uneventful, but there was one big upset. Men’s singles third seed Lee Zii Jia lost 0:2 to Watanabe Koki. What was even more outrageous was that in the second game, Lee Zii Jia was beaten by his opponent with a shocking score of 21:2.

On the 18th, the first round of the China Open will continue.