Beijing: Zhang Nan who won the mixed doubles gold (with Zhao Yunlei) at the 2012 London Olympics and men’s doubles gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics (with Fu Haifeng), and had retired from the Chinese Badminton Association on August 20, 2022, is officially back to compete at international tournaments.
On Friday, his name appeared on the list of Chinese players registered to compete at the 2023 Ruichang China Masters, BWF Tour Super 100 event that will take place in Ruichang, China, from Mar 14 to Mar 19.
Zhang will be playing as an independent/professional player instead of representing the Chinese national badminton team. Zhang will be partnering with Huang Jiawei in the men’s doubles event.
The 32-year-old Zhang Nan is one of the most outstanding doubles players in the history of both international and Chinese badminton. Although he and his 2017 men’s doubles world championships gold medal partner, Liu Cheng, didn’t qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics, they did try to make a brief comeback after the Tokyo Games, but couldn’t make any significant impacts. He then decided to retire from the Chinese national team, and would compete in future tournaments as a professional player.
Traditionally, the Chinese national team would not allow its players to become independent players after they left the national team. However, competing internationally as an independent player has been very common in Malaysia, players such as Lee Zii Jia, Teo Ee Yi/Ong Yew Sin are all independent players.
The fact that Zhang could compete as a professional player marked a new and positive development in Chinese badminton, and we are sure more Chinese players are expected to follow suit.
