Jayce
In today’s quarterfinals of the 2024 Korea Open Badminton Championships, men’s singles top seed Shi Yuqi was defeated by Lee Cheuk Yiu with a score of 13-21, 15-21. Meanwhile, Li Shifeng lost to Taipei’s Lee Chia-hao 14-21, 18-21, leaving Lu Guangzu as the only Chinese men’s singles player to advance to the semifinals. Quietly, the burden and expectations of being the next in line to lead China’s men’s singles seem to have spread like a fog.
At his peak, Shi Yuqi was able to compete on par with Lin Dan, Kento Momota, and Viktor Axelsen. However, during the 2019 Indonesia Open, he sprained his ankle in a match against Anders Antonsen. The ankle injury swept through his world like a storm, and the surgery and long recovery journey felt like a trek through a desert, with his performance fluctuating as he searched for a return to form.
Earlier this year, Shi Yuqi seemed to be experiencing a resurgence in his career, winning multiple championships. However, in the Olympic men’s singles quarterfinals, he was defeated 0-2 by Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. Li Shifeng, who won the gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games, also performed poorly, being eliminated in the round of 16. This marked the first time since the 2004 Athens Olympics that no Chinese men’s singles player reached the semifinals.
The defeat at the Olympics cast a shadow over Shi Yuqi’s mindset. Last week at the Japan Open, he suffered a shocking loss to French rising star Toma Junior Popov, ranked only 29th in the world, shattering his dream of reaching the semifinals. This week, the quarterfinals once again proved to be an insurmountable barrier, causing his mental balance to collapse entirely, as if lost in a sea of people, with no direction forward.
In an interview after today’s match, Shi Yuqi revealed thoughts of giving up, saying, “My physical condition was really bad today, and I was in a lot of pain. I’ve been enduring this for about four or five years now, and today I just broke down a bit. I don’t want to endure it anymore. After my surgery, I encountered many issues, with new injuries repeatedly appearing. I kept pushing through to play in the Olympics, but my goal wasn’t very clear, and I was quite confused, with my mindset not being in a good place.”
Currently, the Chinese men’s singles team lacks a leading figure. If Shi Yuqi truly decides to give up, the team will face an unprecedented challenge in the near future.
