This October, at the 17th Sudirman Cup, China claimed the cup title for a record-extending 12th time in a lengthy battle against Japan, winning 3-1 in the finals played to the best of five (“Team”).
The Sudirman Cup is a biennial tournament and one of many international badminton championships contested by national teams rather than by individual players (“2021 Sudirman”). As always, there are five categories: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. This year, many changes were introduced. Only national teams from Europe played qualifying matches; teams from other continents did not and were qualified based on current world rankings rather than qualifying matches due to COVID restrictions. This year’s Sudirman Cup also changed the number of contestants from 32 to 16, a drastic cutdown (“2021 Sudirman”). But one big thing hasn’t changed: China’s dominance of the Sudirman Cup.
On October 3rd, 2021, in Vantaa, Finland, China and Japan met again at the Sudirman Finals as they did in the previous one. China’s men’s doubles He Jiting and Zhou Haodong secured a 2-1 victory against Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, only for the result to be neutralized by a 0-2 surprise defeat of Chen Yufei, the reigning women’s singles Olympic champion, at the hands of Akane Yamaguchi. With a tie of 1-1, China’s men’s singles Shi Yuqi battled Japan’s Kento Momota, the reigning world number one, in arguably the most dramatic match of the finals. Echoing his win at the previous Sudirman Cup, Shi once again defeated Momata 2-1 after strategically forfeiting the second game and coming back during the third, claiming that he “controlled Momota today” after “studying Momota’s game here at the Sudirman Cup” (Ryding). Indeed, Shi controlled Momota’s tempo throughout the game. With a 2-1 lead, China’s women’s doubles Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, silver medalists at the Tokyo Olympics, beat Mayu and Misaki Matsumoto of Japan 2-0 in a fast-paced and stern match, bringing China yet another Sudirman Cup title (Ryding).
Works Cited
Liew, Vincent. “Shi Yuqi Tops Kento Momota, China Beats Japan to Win Its 12th Sudirman Cup…” BadmintonPlanet.com, BadmintonPlanet.com, 3 Oct. 2021, www.badmintonplanet.com/badminton-news/18380-shi-yuqi-tops-kento-momota-china-beats-japan-win-12th-sudirman-cup-title.html.
Ryding, Paul. “China claim a 12th Sudirman Cup crown against rivals Japan in high-quality final.” South China Morning Post, 4 Oct. 2021, www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3151098/china-claim-12th-sudirman-cup-crown-against-rivals-japan-high-quality?module=perpetual_scroll&pgtype=article&campaign=3151098. Accessed 18 Oct. 2021.
“Team China win 2021 Sudirman Cup trophy.” China Global Television Network, 3 Sept. 2021, news.cgtn.com/news/2021-10-03/Team-China-win-2021-Sudirman-Cup-trophy-144a4iinfzy/index.html. Accessed 18 Oct. 2021.
“2021 Sudirman Cup.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Oct. 2021. Accessed 18 Oct. 2021.