Jakarta, IO – China’s women’s singles Chen Yu Fei won the Kapal Api Group Indonesia Open 2023 badminton tournament, after overcoming Spain’s Carolina Marin. Competing at Istora Gelora Bung Karno, Senayan, Jakarta, Sunday 18 June, the gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics won 21- 18, 21-19.
Chen, who was born on March 1, 1998, admitted that she had difficulty in the middle of the second game. Luckily, the All-England 2023 runner up was able to stay calm while chasing the gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, finally winning in 1 hour 4 minutes.
“In this match I didn’t think too much. When I was far behind, I shifted my strategy and focused, point by point,” said Chen.
This victory feels special, considering that in the 2022 edition she won the Indonesia Masters event. At the top of the BWF Super 500 tournament, she took the matches with a score of 21-16, 18-21, 21-15 against Thai badminton queen Ratchanok Intanon.
“Winning this time feels special and I will never forget it. Support from the fans at Istora is extraordinary, making it very comfortable for me to compete here,” added the 171 cm-tall player.
Born on 1 March 1998 , Chen won the girls’ singles junior titles at the 2016 Asian and the World Junior Championships. During the same year, she clinched her first senior title at the Macau Open. She was awarded recognition as the “2017 Eddy Choong Most Promising Player of the Year”. On 17 December 2019, she reached a career-high BWF World Ranking as world number one.
She reached the final of the 2017 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold and had to settle for second best after losing to Chen Xiaoxin, the same opponent whom she defeated in Macau Open final in 2016.
In the 2017 BWF World Championships, the 19-year-old Chen participated as the 9th seed in the tournament. After defeating Pai Yu-po, the lower-ranked China Taipei player in the first round, she set her meeting with the top seeded Akane Yamaguchi. She bulldozed her way through with the 21–18, 21–19 victory and stunned the world.