China retained the Thomas Cup after a nearly four-and-half-hours battle against a resilient France in Horsens, Denmark.
The French, playing in their maiden Thomas Cup Finals, bowed out 1-3 in the final. But it was a tie that could have easily gone their way, especially with the way their three singles players threatened their Chinese rivals.
He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu secured the triumph with a 21-13, 21-16 doubles victory over Eloi Adam-Leo Rossi.
The win was China’s 13th in the series and made up for the Chinese women’s 1-3 defeat to Korea in the Uber Cup Final earlier in the day.
World No. 1 Shi kicked things off with a 21-16, 16-21, 21-17 nail-biter over No. 4 Christo Popov, putting the Chinese out in front. The Chinese world number one, had to dig deep to overcome Christo in the 85-minute encounter.
Christo had beaten Yuqi for the BWF World Series Finals title last December and was always a threat in the match but Yuqi managed to stave off the Frenchman this time.
The second singles, saw Alex Lanier’s pick up a surprisingly easy 21-13, 21-10 win over world number seven Li Shifeng.
Toma Popov Junior then fell Weng Hongyang in another close-as-can-be contest, 22-20, 20-22, 21-19 after a 96-minute struggle.
That win put China on the cusp, the team title sealed in the doubles. A fifth match-up – which was set to feature Christo and Toma in doubles – was therefore not needed.
After winning just one Thomas Cup between 2014 and 2022, the Chinese men have now won two in a row, having beaten Indonesia in 2024.
FINAL RESULTS
China beat France 3-1 (Shi Yuqi bt Christo Popov 21-16, 16-21, 21-17: Li Shifeng lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 10-21; Weng Hongyang bt TomaJunior Popov 22-20, 20-22, 21-19; He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu bt Eloi Adam-Loe Rossi 21-13, 21-16)
