Beijing: With the postponement of the 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup to 2021 and with three Asian leg tournaments including Asia Open I, Asia Open II (Super 1000), and the BWF World Finals which were originally scheduled to be held in Thailand in November 2020, but were postponed to January 2021; China held a Thomas and Uber Cup simulation in Beijing to give Chinese badminton players the feeling of competitiveness and excitement associated with playing competitive badminton.
In the tie between the Fighting Dragon and the Eagle Team on Sunday, Chen Long came out strong in the first men’s singles match, finding his trademark smashes, defeating Zhao Junpeng of the Eagle Team 21-18, 21-15 as Zhao was struggling to figure out Chen.
After the match, Chen Long said he has been focusing on strengthening his attacking skills recently, and he has been trying to apply what he has learned in Sunday’s game. Speaking of the current shortage of international tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he believed that playing in tournaments was very important to keep an athlete sharp on the court.
“After training for a while, we need to start finding our rhythms by competing in tournaments,” said Chen.
World No. 2 men’s doubles pair Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen then took to the court to give the Fighting Dragon team 2-0 by overcoming a tough challenge from World No. 13 Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong with a 26-24, 21-16 win.
However, in the second men’s singles match, Weng Hongyang of the Eagle narrowly defeated Sun Feixiang of the Fighting Dragon 21-19, 23-21 to put the overall score at 1:2.
The Fighting Dragon team looked to be in control as He Jiting/Tan Qiang defeated Wang Chang/Di Zijian 22-20, 21-16 and teenager Li Shifeng survived a scare to beat Lei Lan Xi from the Eagle team 21-15, 25-23 in the second men’s doubles and the third men’s singles matches to wrap up the tie in favor of the Fighting Dragon team with an overall score of 4:1.
