Lingshui: After ten days of competition, the 2023 China Badminton Super League (CBSL) has come to an end in Lingshui, Hainan on Tuesday as Xiamen swept Ruichang 3-0 to win the 2023 CBSL title.
Given that Xiamen has several World No. 1s in their lineup, including Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong (mixed doubles), Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan (women’s doubles), and World No. 5 men’s pair Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi, they were undoubtedly the heavy favorites to win this year’s CBSL and they showed just that in the final.
Complete tie of Xiamen vs. Ruichang in the 2023 China Badminton Super League (CBSL) final:
The first match was a men’s doubles battle between Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi taking on two former World Champions – Mohammad Ahsan/Li Junhui who were still in red hot form after beating the current World No. 9 Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang in the semi-finals.
Although playing against his old partner – Li Junhui, Xiamen’s Liu Yuchen showed no mercy as he and Ou Xuanyi quickly beat Ahsan/Li 11-7, 11-3, 11-8 to give Xiamen a 1-0 lead.
“We made them very uncomfortable, and they couldn’t penetrate our defense. Fortunately, our offense was strong enough to score points for us,” said Liu after the match.
In the following men’s singles match, Weng Hongyang of Xiamen was very aggressive from start, and also tried to speed up the tempo to ultimately beat Li Shifeng 11-8, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9 to extend Xiamen’s lead to 2-0.
“I was very relaxed today. I have been using CBSL to strengthen my mental strength, so that I could become more consistent at upcoming international tournaments,” said Weng.
There was pretty much no suspense in the mixed doubles match as World No. 1 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong defeated Mohammad Ahsan/Liu Xuanxuan 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 to seal the deal for the Xiamen team.
“It was a surprise for me. Ahsan was the men’s doubles world champion, I think it was very memorable to have such an experience playing against him in mixed doubles,” said Huang after scoring the winning point for Xiamen.
This was Xiamen’s second CBSL title since last winning it in 2018.
