Suzhou: China won the Sudirman Cup for the 13th time on Sunday as they defeated Korea 3-0 in the final in Suzhou.
Compared to the thrilling semi-finals against Japan, where China narrowly escaped a defeat by eventually beating Japan 3-2, this time around, the hosts needed just three of the five matches to secure victory, leaving the men’s doubles and women’s doubles match unplayed.
Highlights of China vs. Korea in the 2023 Sudirman Cup final:
In the first match, after dropping game one 18-21 to Korea’s Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung, World No. 1 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong were trailing most of the second game at 3-9, 16-19. And at 19-20, the Chinese pair held their nerves to reel off 3 consecutive points to win 22-20 and to force a decider.
In the third set, Zheng/Huang were on fire and didn’t give Seo/Chae any chances to win 21-8 and score the opening point for China.
Shi Yuqi of China was able to stay cool to shrug off a slow second-set start, coming from 1-7 to beat Lee Yun Gyu 21-13, 21-17 to give China an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Chen Yufei managed to end her 3-match losing streak to An Se Young of Korea in 2023 by beating the World No. 2 from Korea 21-16, 22-20 to clinch the Sudirman Cup for China, which was also China’s 9th Sudirman Cup in the last 10 editions.
On Sunday, China’s badminton legend, Lin Dan, also attended the final.
“After my retirement, this is my first time watching Sudirman Cup live,” said Lin.
Lin actually predicted China would win the Sudirman Cup by 3-0 before the start of the tie.
