PETALING JAYA: Is Shi Yuqi’s withdrawal a tactical ploy by China?
Yesterday, China named Yuqi in their line-up against Canada but he did not play and later, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced that the world No. 1 had taken ill.
Yuqi will have a day rest before he returns to play against Lakshya Sen in China’s final Thomas Cup Finals Group A tie against India to determine the group winners at Forum Horsens tomorrow.
In world No. 1 Yuqi’s absence, China beat Canada 4-1. Victor Lai contributed the only point, thanks to the walkover from Yuqi. Victor has kept a clean slate in every match he has played so far.
China’s top pair Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang restored order when they gave their team the first point but not after huffing and puffing in the first game.
They eventually defeated Kevin Lee-Ty Alexander Lindeman 24-22, 21-14.
Li Shifeng then beat Brian Yang 23-21, 21-10 before He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu quickly took down Kiren Deraj-Daniel Leung 21-15, 21-9 to seal the win.
Singles player Weng Hongyang then wrapped things up with a 21-15, 21-5 win over Timothy Lock to make it 4-1 for China. It gave the 11-time winners China their second Group A win and secured their spot in the quarter-finals following their 5-0 win against Australia on Friday.
India, who beat Australia 5-0 yesterday, have also qualified for the last eight but they will be out to upstage the fancied team. They are motivated to win their second Thomas Cup title after enjoying an incredible run to their first Cup win in the 2022 edition.
En route to the title, they had beaten Malaysia (quarter-finals), Denmark (semi-finals) and Indonesia (final).
