Zheng Siwei (right) during the competition. [Photo/WeChat account: wztiyu]
The Chinese badminton team won the 2023 BWF Sudirman Cup after a 3-0 final victory over South Korea at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on May 21. It is the third consecutive time and the 13th time total that China topped the podium at the world mixed team championships.
Wenzhou-born athlete Zheng Siwei won the Sudirman Cup for the first time in 2019 and again for a second time this year. Meanwhile, Ding Liren, a Wenzhou-born chess master, won the 2023 International Chess Federation World Championship recently.
After a thrilling 7-hour epic battle with the Japanese team in the semi-finals, the world No 1 mixed doubles pair Zheng and Huang Yaqiong competed against old rivals Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jung from the South Korean team and gained the first point for the Chinese team with a final score of 18-21, 22-20 and 21-8. Chinese men's singles ace Shi Yuqi won the second point by beating Lee Yun-gyu. Olympic champion Chen Yufei concluded the final after beating An Se-young.
The Sudirman Cup, the world's top badminton competition, has been held every two years since 1989. The Sudirman Cup, the Thomas Cup (men's team) and Uber Cup (women's team) are all major global badminton events. Zheng won the Thomas Cup once in 2018 and the World Championships three times in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
