WORLD JUNIORS 2015 Finals – 1st in 4, 11, and 15!

While Goh Jin Wei and Lu Chai Hung ended title droughts for their teams of 4 and 11 years respectively, Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen gave China its first doubles sweep in 15 years.

By Don Hearn.  Photos: Raphael Sachetat for Badmintonphoto (live)

Some might look back on the World Junior Championships hosted by China 15 years ago for being the springboard for the careers of its four boys’ singles finalists Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, and Bao Chunlai.  However, it was also the occasion of the only title sweep in the history of the event.  Team China did not quite repeat that feat in 2015 but they did sweep the doubles and once again, the feat relied heavily on the efforts of the winning mixed doubles combination.

Two years ago, Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen (pictured) each reached their first World Junior Championship finals.  Chen was in two and won one title, with Zheng’s boys’ doubles partner Huang Kaixiang.  In the next 12 months, Chen and Huang played in a Grand Prix Gold final and also picked up the Asian and World Junior titles.

With Huang about to graduate into the senior ranks, Chen teamed up with Zheng and promptly won the 2014 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold title and then reached their first Superseries semi-final.  This year, they just continued steamrolling and picked up their second Grand Prix Gold title, in  New Zealand, then took the expected Asian Junior title.

Fast-forward to the World Junior Championships and the by now seasoned champions Zheng and Chen exhibited none of the jitters that afflicted some of their similarly decorated compatriots.  All week, the mixed doubles top seeds never once spent more than half an hour on court – though they did go 36 minutes once in the team event – and they wrapped up the final with a convincing straight game victory over He Jiting and Du Yue.

Later in the afternoon, Chen had a second showdown with Du Yue, who had denied her and girls’ doubles partner Jia Yifan a title defense at the Asian Juniors this year.  Du was paired with Li Yinhui, who spent part of the time since the July victory  winning her own Grand Prix Gold title at the Thailand Open.  The 10th-seeded Du and Li managed to produce the longest contest of the afternoon in Lima but still had to bow to Chen and Jia as Chen Qingchen extended her record to 8 career World Junior Championship titles.

The doubles tripod, where both Zheng and Chen each had one leg in two finals, was complete only when Zheng Siwei and He Jiting shut down the only European finalists.  Joel Eipe and Frederik Søgaard Mortensen (pictured above) could not find a way to follow up their thrilling semi-final victory over the Asian Junior runner-up pair with a performance that could net them the title.

If it is already clear that Chen Qingchen and Zheng Siwei are destined for great things as they embark on their senior careers starting in 2016, Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei has found success even as her junior days have barely begun.  The 15-year-old beat compatriot Lee Ying Ying (pictured) to take Malaysia’s first ever World Junior title in girls’ singles and the gold was Malaysia’s first in any category at this event since they took both boys’ titles in 2011.

Both India and Chinese Taipei came to the World Juniors in 2015 with just a solitary title in their pasts and in both cases it was a girls’ singles title.  This year, it all came down to the boys’ singles title to determine which would be the first nation to title in the category.  Siril Verma went one game up when he took the opener 21-17 but Chinese Taipei’s Lu Chia Hung (pictured bottom) was dominant in the next two games and it was he who celebrated his title and the first for his team since Cheng Shao Chieh won 11 years ago in Canada.

Final results
XD: Zheng Siwei / Chen Qingchen (CHN) [1] beat He Jiting / Du Yue (CHN) [8]  21-19, 21-8
WS: Goh Jin Wei (MAS) [4] beat Lee Ying Ying (MAS)  21-15, 21-16
MS: Lu Chia Hung (TPE) [6] beat Siril Verma (IND)  17-21, 21-10, 21-7
WD: Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan (CHN) [1] beat Du Yue / Li Yinhui (CHN) [10]  21-18, 13-21, 21-11
MD: He Jiting / Zheng Siwei (CHN) [1] beat Joel Eipe / Frederik Søgaard Mortensen (DEN) [2]  21-14, 21-16

Click here for complete results