Reasons to think that she is good: being the World Junior Champion for one, and not losing to any junior players for more than a year for another. She is solid but not spectacular. To me, at this point, she does not look like someone who can reach the very top echelon but should be able to find a place in top 10 ranking.
I think if Chen Yufei is temperamentally stable which she appears to be, and continues to be consistent in her shotmaking(neat and accurate but could improve on variation) and, importantly, able to inject pace often enough with maximum effect, I believe she can go far. Don't forget she's only 19, born 1st March, 1998, and still developing her game, maybe not completely out of the formative stage yet, so I'd say a sort of transformation is possible.
My Girl did it. No one believed in her except me. I told you that she is a wonderkid but people made more fun of her than ever.
It's almost unthinkable that AY can be out-resilient by another player. CYF showed some grit and did it. CYF's mistake-free style may have unknown potential after all. I thought that she can be very good at capitalizing on opportunities when her opponents are not in top form, but CYF showed that she can take on a top opponent head-on.
I saw the game and felt that the coach played a big part in her victory......real good game plan.......disappointed the Japanese coaches and AY didn't or wasn't able to adjust during the game.....(not that I know what shud be done)....
Chen Yufei's giant-killing feat continues, today in R3, she disposed of the former WS WC, Intanon Ratchanok, who's also one of the frontrunners for the title at Glasgow. Two remarkable feats in sensational fashion in consecutive days by a young, promising player just a year out of the junior circuit into the pro circuit and in her maiden performance at the world championships at Glasgow is the kind of stuff that makes sports headlines. As it is, successfully making her way into the semifinals already guarantees the 19-year-old reigning world junior champion at least a bronze medal at the proper world championship level regardless the outcome tomorrow. Nevertheless, as sweet dreams are made of this, who are we to say Chen Yufei is not to go all the way and wear the crown of Women's World Champion come Sunday ? Hope springs eternal, so let us wish Chen Yufei great success the next two days at Glasgow ! JIAYOU !
As expected Chen Yufei's amazing run at the Glasgow WC2017 came to an abrupt end at the semifinals. However, while her loss to Sindhu is no surprise, the manner of her defeat is somewhat disconcerting to me. CYF went down as badly as Chen Long did before her to Viktor Axelsen in humiliating fashion. Just as Chen Long couldn't get his game going inexplicably, nothing went right for him as much as it was his opponent playing superbly, the same applied to CYF as she gifted points like nobody's business, there was none of the flair she exhibited in previous rounds when she astoundingly took out in turn Akane and Intanon. In fact, in that disastrous match with Sindhu, she was all at sea as if she had forgotten how to deal with a tall, fast attacking player with the height and reach, just as Chen Xiaoxin was seemingly clueless in dealing with Intanon's deceptiveness to run circles around her, completely outclassed as if CXX was not only in awe of the occasion but also of the famous opponent, the former world champion. Nonetheless, Chen Yufei has already created sensations and caused quite a stir at Glasgow by her phenomenal feat as aforementioned. For such a talented young aspirant, it's natural to be inconsistent and have more ups and downs early on in the career. That's how they grow and mature as a player. May Chen Yufei go from strength to strength in the coming years and scale greater heights. I wish Chen Xiaoxin the same.
Once CYF started to make uncharacteristic mistakes, it was clear that it was not going to be her day. As the commentators remarked, she had never gone past quarter-finals at super series level tournaments. The gravity of what she had accomplished might have finally dawned on her and she was not her usual self in that match. She definitely have raised eyebrows by beating AK and RI back to back at the World Championship. While I am still not convinced that she is the answer for Chinese WS, I will certainly be watching her more.
Hearties congratulations to Chen Yufei for winning the Chinese National Games 2017 Women's Singles Championship ! For CHN players, the CNG is a big event, so it's considered her first major achievement. A huge boost to her confidence and inner belief. Way to go ! Jiayou !
IMHO, Chen Yufei's game is simple, straightforward, mostly textbook shots, quite effective when she is on top of her game but not difficult to prepare against her if you are experienced enough. In today's match with Sindhu at the French Open QFs, Chen Yufei who is usually calm and composed, appeared tense, more error-prone than normal, esp at the net. On the whole, she's not reading Sindhu's game, was forced on the defensive more often than not, her vulnerabilities exacerbated by Sindhu's fine play. Contrast CYF with He Bingjiao, the latter has a wider repertoire, more creative, deceptive, and able to keep the opponent guessing. However, HBJ is too unpredictable, inconsistent , and error-prone to my liking at the moment, but, I admit, I much prefer her game to CYF's, and still believe she can tighten her game, cut down on simple errors, stay focused, and rise another level. Glad to say, her fitness and stamina has improved now, still she must continue to work at it, can't afford to slacken as that was her worst shortcoming for some time. Honestly, while I do like Chen Yufei and think she will go far one day, I'm not too excited by her as I am by He Bingjiao whose potential seems greater and more appealing to me. I hope to be able to say the same of Chen Xiaoxin in good time.
http://sports.qq.com/a/20171115/037279.htm Chen Yufei was dispirited after losing to Tai Tzu Ying today at the China Open PSS:" Mainly, I became to anxious in G2 (after taking G1, 21-11), demanded a bit too much of my shotmaking and made quite a few mistakes." But Tai Tzu Ying, who originally thought she might lose but in the end managed to come up on top through her strength and experience, gave recognition to Chen Yufei's performance:" From the time she came out to compete (in the pro circuit) till now, her improvement has been rapid."
While Chen Yufei has fighting spirit, I feel she is mentally not strong enough. In today's match with Tai Tzu Ying at the HK Open QFs, she was holding two gamepoints in the second set but failed to convert and went on to lose the deuces 21-23. I hope she learns to handle the crucial points better. At the same time, I'm glad that she gets to play TTY twice in two weeks as I believe such match experience with presumably the best WS player at the moment can only be beneficial to her growth and development as a young up-and-coming aspirant, particularly when she acquitted herself reasonably well despite defeat based on how she played and not just the scoreline. At the China Open, CYF lost by 21-11, 18-21, 17-21. At the HK Open, she lost by 15-21 and 21-23.
I think both Chen and Gao have way too many unforced errors to get to the very top. Chinese coaching staff needs to figure out how to fix this. However, this looks familiar. TTY was (and still is) a colorful player, but she too made a lot of errors in her games. In recent 1-2 years, Tai had improved in this area.
Interestingly, Tai says what Chen lacks is some fierceness/character (霸气). I think mentally, Chen is strong. There's one match where she went from lagging behind by a lot of points to closing the gap (can't remember which competition and against who), although she still lost it in the end. A number of players would have crumbled, but Chen didn't, so that speaks a lot of her mental strength. That said, it might just be her character. She's very calm and stable for someone of her age. That might put out the fire in her, and thus, a lack of character. Offhand, I can't think of any players who is quite lacking in character in their games. Every player is interesting in some aspect, but Chen doesn't give off that vibe.
Indeed, Chen Yufei is the Most Promising Player of The Year in 2017 as awarded by BWF. Congratulations.
After some reflection, while I can understand and empathise with Zhang Ning's concern that Chen Yufei is too laid-back to her liking but, otoh, I caution against trying too hard to change CYF's personality, specifically her unexcitable temperament. One's personality defines oneself, it's basically difficult to change, at most certain aspects can be changed or improved but the dominant traits will still remain the same. Instead of trying to change her into what she is not, an outgoing, vocal, expressive person on court (fist-pumping, screaming, yelling? what for?), I'd rather just work on boosting her self-confidence and instill an inner sense of belief and let her be herself , her inherent body language, the way she expresses herself naturally, just the way she is, as long as she has the fighting spirit, tenacity, the resolve, willpower and determination to succeed, and has the results to show for. Why not ? Just because she doesn't appear worried, excited, agitated or panicky when the opponent is pulling away by much that she is unmoved or imperturbed or couldn't care less, for all we know, in her mind, she is very much affected by it except that her facial expression and body language is more subdued, that's all. What's more important is that she maintains a never-say-die attitude to the very end. Mental toughness is very much a state of the mind.
http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2018-01-03/doc-ifyqefvx6251429.shtml (my humble translation follows, leaving out some parts of the article I deemed less important, eg on her junior days) The title says Chen Yufei: No longer "Never mind" , rouse myself to be stronger When Chen Yufei defeated Saina Nehwal at the HK Open and earned enough ranking points to move into top 8 of the SS Standings for the year-end Dubai SuperSeries Final, many were happy for her good 'fortune', yet Chen Yufei herself wasn't too elated. As to whether she'd finally qualify for the SSF, she never care too much about it even though it was precisely her friend who forwarded the news to her. Chen Yufei in fact replied:" Actually I wasn't too concerned about it, in case I'm not able to go, so be it, as that proves I'm not good enough, so just continue to practise hard, and hope to make it next year." As usual, Chen Yufei treats most matters in an indifferent manner, whatever the situation may be it's acceptable to her, generally speaking. When she's with the Zhejiang Team, coach Wang Lin assessed her thus:" Chen Yufei is just too good-tempered, her aggression on court simply inadequate." After the Rio Olympics, Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian both retired, Li Xuerui was undergoing a long period of injury treatment and rehabilitation, that's when ,to be exact, Chen Yufei was pushed to the frontline. All the while she has been hoping to fight side by side with her senior fellow teammates but now she had no choice but to take over the baton from them and joined hands with her peers, He Bingjiao and Chen Xiaoxin, to undertake the heavy responsibility of assuming the mantle of CHN WS main force, and that without the guidance and leadership of the seniors. Chen Yufei said:" If my fellow seniors didn't retire, what's more my capability hasn't reached the first level, it's just that in view of the situation at that time , there's no choice except to push myself to the frontline." At first the coaching team didn't set too many inflexible rules and demands on her, merely saying to her:" Now you've to take on more pressure and strive to win more glories for CHN WS." Her coach specifically told her she needed to raise her sense of responsibility. But at that time she wasn't mentally prepared for it:" I just didn't feel any special sense of responsibility at that time, kept thinking I have a big team in front of me, there's no need for me to do anything. However, when immediately thrust to the forefront, all of a sudden I have no idea what to do, what needs to be done." As her position in the national team changed, Chen Yufei felt at a loss. Luckily, she didn't panic, and treated her every training session conscientiously as before. Though she had no idea what to do next, her past experience told her that as long as she remained steadfast, it won't go wrong. Most of the time during training, Chen Yufei would force herself and press on because she knew she needed to make a breakthrough if she is to assume the mantle. In 2017, esp after she had succeeded in capturing both the WJC and the AJC in 2016, she obtained many opportunities to compete in the international pro circuit , it's just that owing to her low ranking, she could only take part in grand prix level events. The coaching team set her a clear-cut mission:" The goal is to win every grand prix title, quickly raise your ranking and qualify for the superseries." At the Thai Masters GPG semifinals, she lost to Busanan, at the Swiss Open Final she was defeated by her teammate, Chen Xiaoxin, at the China Masters she was beaten by the Japanese player, Saena Kawakami - just when she should be winning the championships and earn the required ranking points, her results were less than ideal. In the same period at other tournaments she separately lost to Sun Yu, Tai Tzu Ying and Akane Yamaguchi. 'I wanted to win so much that it affected my mentality and just couldn't do well." That's how Chen Yufei summed up her performance for that period. The feeling was especially evident in her loss to Busanan at the Thai Open. In the first set of that match, Chen Yufei was leading at one time by a big margin of 17-7 but ended up winning it narrowly by 21-18. She said:"Thinking my lead is insurmountable, G1 is as good as won, so I relaxed and allowed the opponent to come back with a string of points. Once she caught up, I had no choice but to inject pace once again in the hope of taking the game but instead messed it up and broke my own rhythm, even my physical fitness became problematic." In the decider, Chen Yufei raced off to an early lead of 7-4, then was overtaken by the opponent, later she fought tenaciously to draw level at 16-all but afterwards fatigue set in and she lost the next 5 points to concede the match. Actually, prior to that period, Chen Yufei had also taken part in some GP level events but she treated them as more of tournament practice than competition and didn't care too much about the outcome. Nowadays the pressure to deliver results is beginning to weigh heavily on her shoulders forcing her to give the matter much thought. In the first half of 2017 she didn't prepare herself well and suffered a series of defeats which gave rise to some negative thoughts:" GP level is already so hard to play, what about the superseries, I reckon I'm one of those who will exit in round one, Ah,how am I going to shoulder the responsibility." " The senior pro circuit is really hard to play!" Just when CYF isn't done celebrating her junior championship successes and she's already sunk into bewilderment in the first half of 2017. In life, CYF has a gentle disposition and easy-going nature, her definition of such a characteristic is a "never mind" attitude. Thus since young till now she almost never finds herself in a predicament as in the face of any difficulties she would adopt a "never mind" approach to get over it smoothly. From a psychological perspective, CYF's personality as such can be rated as perfect but in the field of sporting competition at the highest level such behaviour is considered somewhat lacking in aggression and domineering spirit. For the 2017 Sudirman Cup held in Australia, the Gold Coast offered CYF her debut performance in a team major. Regarding her selection in the national team lineup, CYF still exhibited her 'never mind' attitude as before:" I knew beforehand that three WS could go and based on world rankings I should be one of them, so until the coach informed me officially, I wasn't particularly excited." On the flight to Australia, CYF naturally thought of her coming maiden show. From young she has been especially fond of team tournaments, the reason is pure and simple:" It is something everybody works hard together, when everyone is doing well, so too am I." From her utterance, it's difficult to discern high-sounding words like collective honour or team spirit, rather more of plain and simple words of virtue. In the second group match, China versus Thailand, an assessment of their respective strengths showed that Women's Singles could be a crucial match. Team China's is helmed entirely by new players and Team Thailand has the world champion, Intanon Ratchanok, in command, their most important scoring point. Upon arriving at the Gold Coast, CYF has all along on her own initiative offered to go to battle in the hope of scoring a point for the team. Just before the clash with Team Thailand, she was served notice:" Next match you go !" Prior to the match, CYF and Intanon Ratchanok had squared off once at the KOR Open with CYF winning by the identical score of 21-17. She said:" I think fielding me for that match has to do with my beating her before, the psychological advantage is with me." About to face her very first Sudirman Cup match, CYF was very serious, in the pre-match preparation, she repeatedly watched and discussed Intanon's tactics on video with her coach, doing all she could to be absolutely sure of herself. To score a point for the team by prevailing over the world champion,that would be quite a morale booster! CYF thought so. Unexpectedly, in the second group match, the opposing team sent the young Chochuwong Pornpawee, that is someone who has never beaten CYF in the junior circuit. It took CYF by surprise, at the same time she was glad as a weaker opponent would make her more confident of achieving a good start to her Sudirman Cup campaign. 2 - 0 , CYF won effortlessly. Victorious, she later joined her other teammates at the spectator's grandstand to clap hands with each other in celebration, it was at that moment she truly experienced and finally understood why her fellow senior teammates told her that team events are more important than individual events, and that team events give you a greater sense of achievement than individual events. Due to strategic considerations, CYF was not fielded in the matches that followed. Watching at the spectator's grandstand, she witnessed Team China lost in the final to Team Korea and saw the WS chief coach, Zhang Ning, in tears, outwardly appearing tranquil but inwardly in turmoil. There and then, CYF said to herself:" If I'm a bit stronger, if I have a definite capability like my senior female teammates then I'll be able to compete and score a point for the team. But now I'm not able to do it, I am such a disappointment!" For the first time, CYF felt strongly she must not continue with her "never mind" attitude anymore. Upon returning to Beijing, CYF was even more assiduous at training. During the systematic training period before the Glasgow World Championships, CYF gained weight, to someone who has always been on the slim side and lacking in strength, that bodes well. She knew full well that her improvement in physical attributes is the result of her putting in more effort in power training. Just like before, steadfastly applying time and energy to work hard will always yield progress to CYF.
Chen Yufei, H2H record, 0 - 9 to Tai Tzu Ying after the INA Open WTS1000 Final. Please, don't make it a habit.
