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Journalism of Courage
Is Li Shifeng’s All England title the start of China’s second Lin Dan-ish era of men’s singles dominance, is the throbbing question on everyone’s mind in badminton. Anders Antonsen titled his YouTube show with Hans Kristian Vittinghus as such. In the course of the interaction, Antonsen mentioned how his 95 minute semifinal against Li felt like he hadn’t played a better player before and forced him to summon his own best, such was the quality of his opponent.
Moreover, it was the Chinese 1-2 that left eyes popping and ears pricking, as Malaysia’s coach Hendrawan told The Star, “It’s possible for China’s men’s singles players to dominate again. If you see now, they have five players ranked in the world’s top 30, who all have similar standards.”
But what evokes the Lin Dan comparison? For one, Super Dan has more titles there than any other Chinese. He last won at Birmingham in 2016. China’s last title came in 2018 through Shi Yuqi who Li beat 26-24, 21-5 this time. “I am very excited. I don’t really have the words to express my feelings for the moment. It is a huge payback for all the hard work I’ve put in. Although I’ve got the All England title, I would like to aim for more titles. Lin Dan has been my idol from a very young age. He’s a lot of players’ idol,” he would say of the six-time All England champ. Li sets himself a little further apart from Lu Guangzu (No. 10), Zhao Junpeng (No. 13) and Weng Honyang (No. 27) by not only besting Yuqi, but because it’s the All England where he’s won at.
Li Shifeng took up the sport at 6 at his father’s urging. “My father showed me videos of Lin Dan every day in my childhood, asking me to imitate his playing style. If there is something I don’t know (on the court), I will go to Lin’s video to find the answer. Now I will follow the steps of my idol to fight at the world championships and Olympic Games,” he had told Olympics.org after his Youth Games podium in 2018.
A gold medalist from Buenos Aires Youth Olympics in 2018, he also inches ahead, with this title, of his illustrious batch of former teenaged stars that has Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Lakshya Sen and Kodai Naraoka, having beaten them all in run ups to tournament victories or championship finals. At the Aarhus Thomas Cup of 2021, Li had won five of his six matches accounting for Kunlavut in the quarters and Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama in the semis as China made finals.
After he beat Kento Momota ahead of the All England, Li would tell Xinhua: “Kento was my idol. I’m very excited to play against him and win the match. I never expected the result like this. I believe that I have made lots of progress in the past season and become more experienced.”
That scalp seemed to infuse him with confidence, and the All England result, though appearing out of the blue, wasn’t quite sudden, given Li made the German Open business end. “Hopefully, I can keep the feeling alive,” the 23-year-old shuttler had said. At Birmingham, he did that, and then some more, while debuting at the All England.
It had been quite a turnaround, given China had finished the 2020-2022 All England editions without any title for the first time since 1996. In fact the summer of 2022 had proven torrid for the Chinese. The loss in the semis to Indonesia at the 2022 Thomas Cup (when India won) had been bruising. The start of the Li story can be traced back to China’s 3-0 loss to Indonesia, where Li admitted his singles defeat had been ‘unacceptable.’
China.org.cn in a piece soon after had lamented after a Thomas-Uber double whammy: ‘The women’s failings, though, pale in comparison to the struggles of the men’s team, which has never managed to fill the void left by the retirement of legend Lin Dan.’ China had also lost the 2021 final 3-0 to Indonesia, having last won in 2018.
Zhao Junpeng had admitted his performance had been really weak and he was too hesitant and nervous, missing many chances, and Li Shifeng had rued his own losing outing. China has won the Thomas Cup 10 times prior, including five in a row, which coincided with Lin Dan’s peak from 2004 to 2012.
Doubles legend and Lin Dan’s contemporary, Cai, had reckoned that the Thomas Cup sting would lead to a serious rebuilding motivating players to improve, and the All England 1-2 was exactly as he had predicted.
Yet, the Thomas Cup aftermath had Chinese badminton head Zhang Jun say: “I want to apologize to all the Chinese fans. Sorry we disappointed you. We were so confident to at least win the Uber Cup, and there’s no excuse for the defeat. From the singles to the doubles, we have many problems to solve.
“The overall performance of the men’s team was disappointing. The young generation of Chinese men’s players is developing, but they still trail the world’s top players. We need to find better coaches for them.”
The results of that churning would be what showed up at the All England, a dominant performance, and a 1-2 whose effect was noticed all over. Viktor Axelsen might not have been taken out by a Chinese – Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia beat him – but just like Antonsen and Vittinghus, the Super Dane would know that the riffs of Super Dan-like Chinese dominance are sounding in not so far a distance. He remains ahead of the pack, but there’s many snapping at the heels – the Chinese prominently as Paris qualification starts and the Games approach.
The Chinese are known to pick their big events, and All England is certainly always on their radar, to peak at. Of the last 30 All England men’s titles, a staggering 15 have been won by Chinese, and the remaining by assorted others. Li marching to the title at Birmingham, could well be the start of the new era of dominance.
