The Chinese juggernaut steamrolled finals day at the VICTOR China Open 2024, winning four of five titles. Only an injury to men’s doubles star Ren Xiang Yu in the last match of the day derailed their hopes of a clean sweep.

Ren and partner He Ji Ting looked like completing the shut out when they raced to a game lead over Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin.

But a nasty back spasm flared up at the wrong time as in form pair Goh and Izzudin capitalised for their first Super 1000 title.

For the impressive Chinese team, their dominace came without the presence of their medal-winning heroes from Paris 2024.

Their sole senior player, Huang Dong Ping, who with Feng Yan Zhe added a first-ever Super 1000 title to her collection of Olympic, Asian Championship, and World Tour Finals crowns, summed up the team’s performance best.

“Many first team players are not here because they are taking a break. During this period, our younger and second team players are ready to take over.

“When the first team is taking a break, the second team feels the responsibility to fill the gap. This is because of the healthy competition within the team.

“Every pair and player will do their part. Everyone desires to be a top ranked player.

“That’s why even though the first team players are not here, we could still enter all five finals [and win them],” she said.

One half of the successful women’s double pairing, Li Yi Jing, added to Huang’s sentiments: “I think it’s because we are always getting ready for tournaments.

“After the Paris Olympics, we were very inspired. And here on our home ground in China, we are all determined to achieve some good results.”

Many had hoped young Japanese star Tomoka Miyazaki would prove to be the thorn in China’s side. However, Wang Zhi Yi rose to the occasion to seal her fourth win of the season and become China’s first home winner of the China Open women’s singles since Li Xuerui.

“Last year was not outstanding but I gained a lot of experience and this year I’ve had a few breakthroughs and from this I’ve gained more confidence, and this has resulted in victories like this one today,” she said.

On paper, Weng Hong Yang had arguably the toughest challenge of the day against world No.6 Kodai Naraoka. But China’s script stayed true to form and Weng marched away with a commanding victory 21-17 21-12.

“My focus was on my own match. Of course, I had hoped that China could get the clean sweep. But today the wish was to make sure I got the men’s singles win for the team.”

→Results