Badminton Asia Team ChampionshipsL: Indonesia, China emerge champions

China’s women’s team pose with the trophy after winning the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad on Sunday. (Photo: Deepak Deshpande)

Indonesia and China were crowned the men’s and women’s championships respectively at the Badminton Asia Team Championships, which concluded here on Sunday.

China’s women scripted a remarkable come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Japan while Indonesia came out on top of Japan – winning 3-2 — in a tie where fortunes swung wildly from one side to another.

Indonesia lost the first match, won the next, surrendered the third before equalising in the fourth match. Christie Jonatan then clinched a nailbiting final encounter against Kenta Nishimoto 14-21, 21-19, 21-13 as Japan were denied for the second time on Sunday.

China may not capture the imagination as they once did, but the women on Sunday showed everyone why they’re still a force to reckon with when they were crowned the champions of Asia.

It might have been easier to throw down the towel after losing the first two matches, but Sun Yu put on a remarkable display of badminton, defeating Sayaka Sato 22-20, 21-19. And with this win, she also lit the flames of revival in the Chinese hearts. Yu Luo and Yuanting Tang then equalised when they defeated Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao 21-11, 21-10 in the second doubles match.

Bingjiao He then sealed a brilliant victory for China as she defeated Yui Hashimoto 21-18, 21-12 in the decider.

Earlier in the tie, Nozomi Okuhara bounced back from a game down to defeat Shixian Wang 17-21, 21-16, 21-15 in the opening match. Buoyed by the win, the doubles duo of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi thrashed Ying You and Qing Tian in straight games 21-12, 21-19.

From there, of course, it all went downhill for Japan. Perhaps Sato was suffering from nerves, or it was overconfidence. She tried too hard to force the pace of the match and consequently, was extremely error-prone. It also enabled Sun Yu to control the flow of the proceedings, and to script a Chinese comeback.