Fuzhou: World No. 30 men’s singles player Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark posted on his social media page last week saying that:
“Another absolutely embarrassing all Chinese match – Li/Liu vs He/Tan. Four players putting in zero effort to make it look like they actually play for it. Embarrassing for our sport once again! 🤬👎🏻 #chinaopen”
Another absolutely embarrassing all Chinese match – Li/Liu vs He/Tan. Four players putting in zero effort to make it look like they actually play for it. Embarrassing for our sport once again! 🤬👎🏻 #chinaopen pic.twitter.com/xPehCFf0OV
— HK Vittinghus (@hkvittinghus) November 9, 2018
He then wrote several follow up posts described how he felt about the China Open quarter-final match between the two Chinese pairs.
“21-15 in 9 minutes… I kid you not. Serves outside of the singles back line. Break between first and second game didn’t even last 45 seconds. Hopeless.”
21-15 in 9 minutes… I kid you not. Serves outside of the singles back line. Break between first and second game didn’t even last 45 seconds. Hopeless.
— HK Vittinghus (@hkvittinghus) November 9, 2018
“Seriously this is close to the London Olympics embarrassment. Shots outside of the mat. We’re talking 1,5-2 metres out. This just doesn’t happen.”
Seriously this is close to the London Olympics embarrassment. Shots outside of the mat. We’re talking 1,5-2 metres out. This just doesn’t happen.
— HK Vittinghus (@hkvittinghus) November 9, 2018
“So in the end they did actually play for the win in the final game. Level went from below amateur to normal Chinese high standard. Still not fair (and against the rules), but at least a little positive the result wasn’t fixed.”
Below is the video, BadmintonPlanet.com will let you judge for yourself.
Meanwhile, badminton fans also rebutted Vittinghus’ claim and told him not to jump into the conclusion too fast, because at the same day when World No. 17 He Jiting/Tan Qiang defeated World No. 2 Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen, Japan’s World No. 6 women’s singles player Nozomi Okuhara also beat World No. 11 Sayaka Takahashi with an unbelievably easy score, winning 21-4, 21-10 in 28 minutes.
Some fans also questioned Vittinghus if he could make sure Denmark players were always playing the game “clean”?
“Can you guarantee that Danish badminton players will give their 100% in every match they play?”
Regardless of who is right or wrong, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) should launch an investigation and get to the bottom of this. China has been known of using this ugly tactic for losing purposely by dumping badminton matches so that their teammates could earn more world ranking points that would be a huge lift for their Olympic rankings.
