Source: Visual China Group /Wu Zhizhao/VCG
[Saba Sports News] The 2024 Macau Badminton Open has concluded. In women’s singles, Chinese player Gao Fangjie successfully claimed the title. A photo of her kneeling and crying after winning the championship has been voted the best moment of last week’s BWF events, drawing strong attention from fans. The photo shows Gao Fangjie kneeling on the ground, crying out loud after scoring the final point, fully expressing her emotions. Gao Fangjie was particularly emotional because the day of the final coincided with her 26th birthday. After the Rio Olympics, three mainstays of the Chinese women’s singles team—Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan, and Wang Shixian—began to fade from the forefront, and among those expected to rise alongside Chen Yufei and He Bingjiao was Gao Fangjie. In the 2017 China Badminton Open, Gao Fangjie rose to fame by defeating Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin and runner-up Pusarla Venkata Sindhu. Just as fans were hoping Gao Fangjie would become the new badminton queen, she suffered a serious injury with a ruptured left Achilles tendon in 2019. By the time she returned to the international stage, it was already late 2022. Gao Fangjie’s return to competition has required more effort than most. Will her victory at the Macau Open mark the beginning of her return to the ranks of world-class players?