Vantaa: China’s Tokyo Olympics mixed doubles gold medalists – Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping, shrugged off surprise defeats in the men’s doubles and men’s singles matches at the 2021 Sudirman Cup Group A tie between China and Thailand on Wednesday, sealing the winning point against World No. 3 Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai to give the 11-time Sudirman Cup champions – China, a 3-2 victory over Thailand.
In the first match of the tie, China’s World No. 20 Tan Qiang/He Jiting was caught off guard by Thailand’s World No. 153 Supak Jomkoh/Kittinupong Kedren, where the young and stubborn Thailand pair refused to let their teammates down by playing fast and attacking badminton to beat Tan/He 11-21, 21-8, 21-11 in 47 minutes.
The Tokyo Olympics women’s singles gold medalist, Chen Yufei then leveled the score at 1-1 by outlasting World No. 13 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand 21-12, 21-10.
Thailand’s three-time World Junior Champion, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, showed he has huge potential to become the next big star of badminton, coming from 1-7, 7-13, to beat World No. 10 Shi Yuqi of China 21-17 in the men’s singles first game.
In a similar fashion as the first game, after trailing by 9-12 in the second game, Vitidsarn staged a remarkable comeback to beat Shi Yuqi 21-17 and gave Thailand a 2-1 lead.
China’s World No. 2 Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan took their World No. 8 opponents seriously Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai in the women’s doubles match that followed, completely dominated the match and took the tie down-to-the-wire by beating the Thai pair 21-4, 21-12.
In the deciding match, Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping came out strongly after two days rest, took the first game 21-8 against Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Dechapol Puavaranukroh appeared to experience a back injury when the Thai pair was down 12-15 in the second game. Puavaranukroh called for a medical time-out, and couldn’t move as swiftly as before after receiving the treatment from the doctor. The Thailand pair eventually went down 8-21, 15-21 to Wang/Huang.
Below are day four results for the 2021 Sudirman Cup:
Sudirman Cup – Group C, Indonesia vs. Denmark 3-2
Sudirman Cup – Group C, Canada vs. Russia 0-5
Sudirman Cup – Group A, India vs. Finland 4-1
Sudirman Cup – Group A, China vs. Thailand 3-2
