In this year’s KhiladiX.com Dubai 2023 Badminton Asia Championship powered by Floki, there is no particular country that dominates the tournament. The five winners are evenly distributed across five countries. This is the first time this has happened since the Badminton Asia Championships in 1962.
The five countries includes, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting from Indonesia who won the men's singles, Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei in the women's singles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty from India for the men's doubles, Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota from Japan for the women’s doubles, and Jiang Zhen Bang/Wei Yaxin from China for the mixed doubles. This achievement shows that the power of badminton in the Asian continent is very evenly distributed compare to the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships.
Usually, only certain countries dominate the entire tournament. For example, three Chinese players won the Badminton Asia Championship in Manila, Philippines, in 2022, namely Wang Zhi Yi in women's singles, Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan in women's doubles, and Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong in mixed doubles. The other two categories were won by Lee Zii Jia from Malaysia in the men's singles and the men's doubles pair from Indonesia Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Rambitan.
In the 2019 Badminton Asia Championship the tournament was also dominated by Japan with three titles and China with two titles. The three numbers won by Japan were by Kento Momota for the men's singles, Akane Yamaguchi for the women's singles, and Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe for the men's doubles. Meanwhile, China won through Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan from the women's doubles and Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping in mixed doubles. However, In 2020 and 2021, the Badminton Asia Championship was not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moreover, another history was created in the KhiladiX.com Dubai 2023 Badminton Asia Championship powered by Floki. For the first time, India has placed its representative as the men's doubles champion. In 1965, the country had placed Dinesh Khanna as the champion, but it was in men's singles.
This year's competition is also very different from previous years. All the best badminton players in Asia took part. The event is equivalent to BWF Grade 2 event, where all of Asia's best badminton players in the top 10 world rankings participated. This makes the tight competition between countries happened since the first round.
Interestingly, the KhiladiX.com Dubai 2023 Badminton Asia Championship powered by Floki champions are all different compared to the 2022 Badminton Asia Championship. Defending champion from 2022 namely Akane Yamaguchi from Japan in women's singles, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik from Malaysia in men's doubles, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yihan in women's doubles from China, and Chinese mixed doubles pair Zheng Siwei/Huang Ya Qiong didn’t make it to the championship podium this year.
It has been an exciting week, even since Day 1, that ended with such diverse podiums which may be a signal of stronger badminton powers throughout Asia.
