Chinese Taipei Takes First in Mixed Doubles Badminton Championship

Sources: All Taipei newspapers

September 10, 2010

The 11th World University Badminton Championship is currently being held in Taipei. Yesterday in the Group Finals, Chen Hong-lin (m) and Wang Pei-rong (f) of Chinese Taipei came back to defeat Zheng Bo and Ma Jin of Mainland China in the mixed doubles. The Mainland Chinese pair had just won the Paris World Badminton Championship mixed doubles title earlier this month.

In the beginning of the first set, Chen and Wang trailed the Mainland duo 2 to 9. Chen consoled Wang and encouraged her not to be too impatient. The pair regrouped and looked for their opponents’ Achilles’ heel. They eventually came back from behind, but lost the first set 20 to 22.

However, the Chinese Taipei pair gradually began to play smoothly, and defeated the Mainland Chinese players in the last two sets with the same score of 21 to 18. Coach Liao Kuo-song praised the mixed duo for accomplishing a mission impossible, adding, “We did not feel any pressure in the competition. We knew our players’ skills would lead to victory.”

The Mainland Chinese players admitted that although they were the Pair World Badminton Champions in Paris, the title did not mean that they were the best mixed doubles players in the world. “Competitions do not follow a formula. Our Chinese Taipei opponents were playing well and had the home court advantage. We did not play well at certain key points during the match, and that’s why we were defeated,” added the Mainland Chinese duo.