Yufei struggles a little to get past Indonesia’s Gregoria

WORLD No. 5 Chen Yufei survived an early scare to join teammates He Bingjiao and Chen Xiaoxin in the women’s singles third round of the World Championships.

After battling through a tough opening game, the 20-year-old Yufei found herself trailing 10-17 in the second game before prevailing 21-17, 22-20 in 43 minutes against Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia at Youth Olympic Sports Park Arena yesterday.

“I have not played a competitive match since the Indonesian Open (three weeks ago), so it does take sometime for me to settle in,” said Yufei, who received a first round bye.

“But my confidence is high coming into the World Championships this week.

“I’m ready to battle any player that comes next.”

World No. 7 Bingjiao was the first to check into the last 16 by defeating Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong 21-11, 21-17 on Tuesday while Xiaoxin edged Cheung Ngan Yi, also of Hong Kong, 21-19, 21-14, yesterday.

The expectations are high on the Chinese trio to recapture their lost glory in the event.

The Chinese won the women’s singles 12 times out of the 16 editions but they have not been able win again after Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon first broke their stranglehold in Guangzhou in 2013.

Carolina Marin of Spain won the next two in 2014 (Copenhagen) and 2015 (Jakarta) and then Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara won Japan’s first in Glasgow last year.

The Chinese battered pride in the women’s singles also extended at the Rio Olympics in 2016 when they failed to retain the gold for the first time since Sydney 2000.

Their women’s singles also flopped in the Uber Cup Finals in Bangkok, failing to defend their title after going down to Thailand in the semi-finals.

The Chinese national team had since fired coach Zhang Ning, a two-time Olympic champion and replaced her with Luo Yigang in a bid to turn their fortunes.