Yonex All England Badminton Championships

What would you call an event which features 6 Chinese out of 10 finalists? Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships, I guess. Well, this has been the story of World Badminton for the past 1 decade or so. One wonders if the Chinese manufacturing factory would ever run out of steam. In the final round to be played tomorrow, World No. 1 in Women’s singles, Wang Yihan plays fellow Chinese Li Xuerui. In the semifinals played today, Yihan defeated World No.3, Chinese Yang Shixian 20-22, 21-18, 21-18, while Xuerui had the better of Chinese Taipei’s Tzu Ying Tai 19-21, 21-16, 21-10.

In the first match of the day, in the Mixed Doubles category, Danish pair Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl defeated World No. 2, Chinese pair, Xu Chen and Ma Jin 21-16, 21-18 in a match which lasted 44 minutes. Juhl was at her best in her flick serves and those deft touches playing in front of the court. In the second mixed doubles match, Indonesian pair of Ahmad Tantowi and Natsir Liliyana defeated Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in a tight two setter 27-25, 21-16.

Korea’s Hyun Il Lee tried his best to level with Malaysia’s World No.1, Lee Chong Wei in the Men’s singles category, but Lee was equal to the task and took the first game at 21-19. In the second game, Lee took a lead of 18-9 and everyone thought he had the game easily, but Hyun came back strongly to only two points deficit at 17-19, before Lee sealed the game and match at 21-18.

In the first semi final of Men’s doubles match, Korea’s Jae Sung Jung and Yong Dae Lee defeated Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in an easy outing. The match lasted only 37 minutes and the final score line was 21-14, 21-13 in favour of the Koreans. In the second semi final, World No.1 pair, Chinese Yun Cai and Haifeng Fu had a straight set win over Japanese pair Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Nariyasu Hirata 21-10, 21-15. The Japanese had absolutely no answer to the tactical and powerful game of the Chinese.

It was an all Chinese affair in the second semi final of Women’s doubles with World No.1 pair Xiaoli Wang and Yang Yu defeating Huan Xia and Tang Jinhua in straight sets 21-13, 21-18.

In the last match of the day, Lin Dan of China expectedly prevailed over Japanese, Kenichi Tago defeating him in two sets 21-18, 21-17. Lin Dan will meet Lee Chong Wei of China in yet another Super Series Final.

Do you need more?