Desperate China turn to Fangjie to deliver the goods
ALOR SETAR: China’s lack of quality women’s singles shuttlers has been the talking point of late.
Two of their former world No. 1s – Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian – hung up their racquets after the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A third former world No. 1 – Li Xuerui has been on an indefinite leave due to a series of injuries after the Rio Olympics.
With so many top stars bowing out of the game, China are desperate for fresh talent and are hoping that 19-year-old Gao Fangjie will be the answer they need, especially with an eye on the Uber Cup Finals in May where China are the defending champions.
World No. 50 Fangjie certainly showed she has the potential to reach the top after a breakthrough performance at the China Open last year.
She defeated India’s world No. 4 P.V Sindhu and Spain’s world No. 5 Carolina Marin to reach the final where she lost to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.
The 1.78m shuttler has also drawn comparisons to Xuerui for a similar style of play but she is keeping herself grounded.
“I am still quite new in the senior team and I have a lot more to improve,” said Fangjie.
“I had a couple of good results last year but it’s still the start of the year and I have not really achieved anything significant.”
For now, Fangjie’s goal is to keep working on improving her rankings in order to qualify for the higher tier tournaments.
“I would love to close the gap on my teammates like Chen Yufei who is ranked No. 8.
“We’re almost the same age but she has more experience and is the top player in the team now while I still have a long way to go,” said Fangjie, who is the fifth ranked Chinese player after Yufei, He Bingjiao (No. 9), Sun Yu (No. 14) and Chen Xiaoxin (No. 20).
She made her senior team debut as China whipped Singapore 5-0 in their first Group D match of the Asia Team Championships here yesterday.
The Jiangsu native, who was part of the team that won the World and Asian Junior Mixed Team Championships in 2016, easily crushed Nur Insyirah Khan 21-6, 21-12 in the third singles tie.
The other points were won by Yufei, Bingjiao and the pairs of Du Yue-Li Yinhui and Dong Wenjing-Feng Xueying.