China failed to make the semifinals of the BWF World Junior Championships for only the second time ever as they capitulated to defending champions Indonesia in the quarterfinals.
In a repeat of the 2019 title bout, the 13-time champions struggled after making early inroads.
The Chinese enjoyed a strong start with their mixed doubles duo Zhu Yi Jun/Liu Sheng Shu proving too strong for Rafli Ramanda/Az-Azahra Putri Dania.
Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan had lost his group match to Malaysia’s Justin Hoh on Wednesday, but there was no loss of confidence when he took on Zhu Xuan Chen. The Indonesian breezed to a straight-games win, handing the baton over to Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo.
Muh Putra Erwiansyah (left) and Muhammad Rayhan Nur Fadillah celebrate Indonesia’s victory over China.
“It was an important win for me and for the team because China were leading 1-0. I feel so happy because I felt it was like a psy-war with me.
“After yesterday’s loss, I didn’t listen to too many people, I just listened to my coach and my parents. My coach kept encouraging me. It took me a night to recover. I had to keep calm and I talked to myself.”
Rather unusually, China fell apart from that point on. Zhang Xin Ran looked a bundle of nerves against Ester Wardoyo, who didn’t ease her foot on the pedal as she closed out the match in 30 minutes.
“I was prepared for a long match,” said Wardoyo. “I could control the game by playing fast and I didn’t give her a chance. Yesterday against Malaysia we were down 0-1 and there was pressure. Today there wasn’t as much pressure, so I could play my style. We haven’t China much since the pandemic, so we didn’t know how strong they were.”
Men’s doubles duo Xu Hua Yu/Zhu Yi Jun had their moments in the opening game against Muh Putra Erwiansyah/Muhammad Rayhan Nur Fadillah before losing the plot in the second, trailing 1-11 at one point.
The other three quarterfinals saw identical 3-0 scorelines, with Chinese Taipei beating England, Korea beating Spain and Japan blanking USA.
In the semifinals on Friday, Indonesia take on Chinese Taipei and Korea face Japan.
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