Agency :
The Chinese women’s badminton team rallied past Japan 3-1 to claim their 15th Uber Cup here in the Ceres Arena on Saturday.
In the opening singles, Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yufei lost 2-0 to world No 5 Akane Yamaguchi, 21-18, 21-10. The Chinese top singles shuttler failed to take the revenge on her old opponent after her loss to the Japanese in the Sudirman Cup final two weeks ago.
Having won the Olympic mixed doubles gold, the Sudirman Cup and now the Uber Cup, Huang Dongping felt very grateful and honored
“The two games are very much alike. Akane did a good job in covering the court,” said Chen. “My moves and response to the shuttle are a bit slow. I was feeling like running out of energy.”
Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan had a tough fight against Japanese pair Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto in the following match. It took the Chinese pair 46 minutes to snatch the first set 29-27, during which the longest rally lasted 56 shots.
The Japanese equalized the doubles match 1-1 by winning the second set 21-15. The Chinese Olympics silver medalists sealed the victory by winning the decider 21-18, equalizing the team score 1-1.
