Chen Yufei Comes of Age
With her YONEX All England victory on Sunday, Chen Yufei reversed China’s recent slide in women’s singles. Not only did she win China’s first All England women’s singles crown since 2014, she gave the country its…
· DEV SUKUMAR
With her YONEX All England victory on Sunday, Chen Yufei reversed China’s recent slide in women’s singles. Not only did she win China’s first All England women’s singles crown since 2014, she gave the country its first major title in the category in over two years.
What will give the Chinese cause for celebration is that Chen is still 21 years old, and still on her way up. She now stands as the spearhead of her country’s revival in women’s singles, a category it dominated for years on end before ceding control to rivals from Japan, India, Spain, Chinese Taipei and Thailand.
Importantly for Chen, she achieved her career-best triumph against an opponent whom she had never beaten in 11 previous attempts. That she did it convincingly, in straight games, was perhaps as much of a surprise to her as for most fans who turned up expecting Tai to complete her hat-trick of All England victories.