THE 125th anniversary of the All-England did not disappoint with the world’s top players serving up a feast of high quality badminton from the first day onwards.
Here are the five main talking points from the world’s oldest badminton tournament:
The redeemers
Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting restored Indonesia’s pride in the singles.
In an all-Indonesia final, Jonatan beat Ginting to end the country’s 30-year title drought.
Anthony also had served up a stunner by ousting Denmark’s world No. 1 and two-time former champion Viktor Axelsen in a thrilling men’s singles quarter-final match.
The 27-year-old has struggled to overcome the Dane in the past few years with the former’s last victory coming in the 2020 Indonesian Masters.
History maker
Christo Popov created history by becoming the first men’s singles player from France to reach the semi-finals of the All-England.The draw opened up for Christo after India’s world No. 8 H.S. Prannoy’s shock defeat to Taiwan’s world No. 32 Su Li-yang in the first round.
The 22-year-old took full advantage by beating Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu, Li-yang and Japan’s Koki Watanabe to make it into the last four.
Christo also took one game from Indonesia’s world No. 5 Anthony Ginting before going down 21-19, 5-21, 11-21 in the semis.
Doubles disaster
There were huge upsets in the men’s doubles as all the current world’s top four pairs crashed out early.
They are French Open champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India (No. 1), South Korea’s reigning world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae (No. 2), China’s Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang (No. 3) and Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (No. 4).
With the Paris Olympics coming up in July, the top pairs’ blip certainly serves as a wake up call.
Timely revival
Struggling Malaysia’s top women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah served a timely reminder of their capabilities when they upstaged China’s world No. 1 and four time world champions Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan in the second round.
Although Yifan was struggling with an ankle injury, it was still no easy task for Pearly-Thinaah, who had to produce their best performance.
They lost to Japan’s world No. 11 Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto in the last eight but proved that they were back on the right track ahead of the Olympics.
Courageous Carolina
Spain’s Carolina Marin got her hands on her first big title since returning from two knee surgeries in 2019 and 2021.
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games champ had to settle for runners-up twice in the World Championships and World Tour Finals title match last year but broke her duck in the All-England.
She beat Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the final after her opponent conceded a walkover due to a hip injury in the second game. Marin could not contain her emotion as it was her second title in Birmingham after nine years.
