Aarhus: China – the most successful team of all time in the history of Uber Cup, regaining the prestigious biennial women’s badminton team championship for the 15th time on Saturday by beating reigning champions – Japan 3-1.
World No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi gave the 6-time Uber Cup champions – Japan the first glimpse of hope as she secured the first point in a surprisingly one-sided first women’s singles match against Tokyo Olympic gold medalist – Chen Yu Fei, winning 21-18, 21-10.
In the first women’s doubles match that lasted only 3 minutes shy of two hours (also the longest match in Uber Cup history), Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan of China shed sweat and blood before dethroning Yuki Fukushima/Mayu Matsumoto of Japan in one of their most epic encounters by beating the Japanese pair 29-27, 15-21, 21-18 to level the overall at 1-1.
China’s World No. 9 He Bing Jiao then took the court in the second women’s singles match and managed to secure a 2-1 lead for China by overcoming World No. 15 Sayaka Takahashi 21-9, 21-18.
In a thrilling second women’s doubles match that lasted an hour and three minutes, Huang Dong Ping/Li Wen Mei saved 4 game points in the second set, holding their nerves to down Misaki Matsutomo/Nami Matsuyama of Japan 24-22, 23-21 to give China the 3-1 decisive win against the Japanese team.
