Chen Yufei, a Chinese player and women’s singles gold medalist at Tokyo 2020. Born in 1998 in Hangzhou, she plays right-handed and initially ascended to world No. 1 in 2019.
Her big victories are All England Open 2019, 2023 and BWF Tour titles. Career highlights include Asian Games team gold in 2022 and singles silver.
In recent seasons, she has achieved elite finishes against An Se-young, Akane Yamaguchi, and Tai Tzu-ying.
Who is Chen Yufei?
Top Chinese women’s singles player and Olympic champion, noted for consistent shot-making, resolute defense and mental toughness at the sport’s highest levels. Her journey from junior phenom to fixture of the Chinese national team forged a career defined by consistency, grit, and technical artistry.
1. Early Life
Chen Yufei started playing badminton at age 5 in Xiamen, China. Early introduction to daily drills and multi-shuttle routines established a foundation for quick footwork and smart net control. Brief footwork ladder and split-step timing slots were also part of her training.
She trained with the Jiangsu Provincial Badminton Team, where regimented workloads boosted her endurance and rally control. Provincial sparring partners forced her to get to shots earlier and mix up pace, enhancing her overall game.
Family support kept the rhythm steady—school, training, rest. That steady, regimented arrangement kept injuries down and training up, allowing her to focus on her development.
Rapid progress manifested itself in junior events around China and Asia, with deep runs that marked her out as a national-team prospect and future singles star.
2. Career Start
Chen’s shift to the professional ranks came via China’s national team system, which immerses athletes in centralized training with high-volume sparring and analytics-led review. Her 2016 international circuit debut marked her out as a name to watch, courtesy of victories against higher seeds at Super Series qualifiers and a run of junior titles.
Initial obstacles were acclimating to hall drift, shuttle speed variations, and the travel grind. Still, she garnered important wins at the Asian Junior Championships and World Junior Championships, then transitioned into senior-level quarterfinals and semifinals that developed ranking points and momentum.
3. Major Wins
Senior titles of note feature a handful of BWF World Tour silverware, including the Denmark Open and China Open, alongside victories at the All England and Asian-level events that require stamina over extended weeks.
Team events contributed additional podiums. China’s Sudirman Cup runs with Chen in high-pressure ties where her singles point often tipped the tide, showcasing her ability to perform under pressure.
She remained on the podium at Asian Championships and other continental events, with repeated semifinal and final appearances. Against top-tier opponents like Tai Tzu-ying, Akane Yamaguchi, and An Se-young she secured headline victories by extending exchanges, alternating lifts with precision net shots, and maintaining her composure at 19–19.
4. Olympic Gold
At Tokyo 2020, Chen won women’s singles gold, closing matches with clean patterns: early length to the back court, tight net control, and calm body language in late points.
The outcome counted, for her legacy and for Chinese badminton’s depth, and it ignited fresh excitement among aspiring shuttlers in schools and clubs. Her victory served as an inspiration for the next generation of players.
5. World Ranking
Chen has remained among the world’s elite, with extended periods in the top 5. She hit world no. 1 in 2019 and has kept up with the very best since, keeping in step with compatriots from Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea and India.
Year-by-year BWF ranking milestones include:
- 2016: Top 20; first senior quarterfinals
- 2017: Top 10; World Championships bronze
- 2018: Top 5; major World Tour wins
- 2019: World No. 1; season of consistent titles
- 2020–2021: Top 3; Olympic gold (Tokyo 2020)
- 2022: Top 5; steady podium runs
- 2023–2024: Top 3; sustained elite results
Playing Style
Chen Yufei combines constant offense with crisp defense. She constructs points with tight clears, flat exchanges and sudden pace lifts, then finishes with a steep smash or a fast forecourt push. Shot choices change by phase: early probing, mid-rally construction, late-rally strike.
She adjusts quick, anticipates rhythms and shifts pace to match the tune. Stamina and composure aid her in winning the long rally, while methodical, low-risk play prepares well-timed explosions of attack.
Strengths
Her footwork is nimble and precise, including tiny recovery steps that maintain her chest square to the shuttle. She sweeps the back corners with short hops, instead of big lunges, which saves time between shots.
On defense, she slides into a balanced base quick, so blocks drop deep and provide her space to reset. Her smash isn’t the most raw in power, but it is steep and well-placed.
On big points she hits to the right hip or backhand shoulder, then goes in and kills it at the net. When opponents guard the body, she half smashes to the lines to induce a lift. This height transition–from high clear to sudden dip–induces mistakes late in games.
- Reads play early and picks lines that limit angles
- Excellent net feel: tight spins, quick lifts that turn defense to attack
- Reliable length on clears under pressure
- Disciplined rally control; few cheap points given away
- Strong transitions from defense to mid-court initiative
- Match management: good at using the clock and rhythm breaks
Weaknesses
Sometimes, a dominant player like Chen Yu struggles when the rally speed remains elevated for extended periods, especially against front-court hunters who jam her mid-line during badminton matches.
- Vulnerable vs quick, non-stop pace from the likes of An Se Young
- Random pops at the tape; soft net answers beckon slayers
- Streaks of shot depth loss in finals she tightens her patterns
- Endurance can falter in long 3 game matches with sprints aplenty.
- Mid-match lulls when opponents snuff out her back-court setup
On-Court Persona
Poised and tidy in body language, she rarely appears to be stressed — even after a long rally or a bad call. Her routines — towel at designated locations, quick laces check, one deep breath — say command, not hysteria.
Umpires and line judges receive cool exchanges; she embraces calls and showers and moves on, which dials down tension and keeps attention on the next play.
In team events, she anchors with quiet cues: short nods, quick words at the change of ends, and stable shot choices that steady younger teammates. Under tight score she pares tactics down to high-percentage lines — deep clears to backhand, cross drop only when balanced, smash to body with a ready second shot — so nerves don’t rule the rally.
The composure breeds the entire court tempo and frequently compels adversaries to exert themselves prematurely.
Racket Choice
Chen Yufei employs a Yonex Astrox series racket, selected for its combination of effortless power and precise control, crucial for her performance in badminton tournaments. It fits long rallies, midcourt pressure, and quick counters at the net. The setup favors head-heavy for punch on smashes, a medium-flex shaft for forgiveness on off-center hits, and a light frame to keep swing speed up without additional strain over three games.
The head-heavy balance allows her to generate a sharp angle from the back court, even when she’s late to the shuttle, making her a dominant player in the competitive badminton scene. A medium-flex shaft stores a bit of energy on the load and provides a cleaner release, assisting in tight defense and quick lifts. The frame typically lands in the 80–88 g range, which keeps drives crisp and allows her to vary pace on short notice.
Certain Astrox also take advantage of a thin, longer shaft. That slim profile cuts air drag and can feel quicker on the draw, while the added length adds a touch of leverage, beneficial for a top seed like Chen Yufei. Players who love an attacking style cherish that weighty head feel, but the medium flex and low air drag prevent it from feeling blunt or slow.
Strings are just as important as the frame. Most pros, like Chen, opt for pro stringing to maintain tension throughout travel and events, especially during major competitions like the badminton Asia championships. Tension typically hovers in the 10.5–12.5 kgf range (roughly 23–28 lb), with textured strings for bite on slice and cut drops.
Tighter bed (closer to 12.5 kgf) provides cleaner control in flat exchanges, while a looser bed (near 10.5-11.0 kgf) imparts shuttle hold for lifts and clears. There is no single correct answer. Some players desire a stiffer feel and thin gauge for speed. Others desire a bit more give for touch shots.
Shaft length contributes as well. A longer shaft can feel springy and shift timing on the swing. If your swing is compact and quick, that added snap can assist. If you have a long smooth stroke, you might enjoy a standard length and a firmer shaft.
The table below contrasts her configuration with popular choices among other top women’s singles players. These are general habits – fashions and event chaining fluctuate week to week, especially in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics.
| Player | Typical balance | Shaft flex | Frame mass | Shaft notes | Common tension (kgf) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chen Yufei | Head-heavy | Medium | 80–88 g | Thin, slightly longer | 10.5–12.5 |
| PV SINDHU | HEAD-HEAVY | STIFF | 83–89 g | STANDARD LENGTH | 11.5 – 13.5 |
| An Se-young | Even to slight head-light | Medium-stiff | 80–85 g | Regular, steady | 11.0–12.5 |
| Tai Tzu-ying | Even to head-light | Medium | 78-84 g | Thin shaft | 10.5-12.0 |
| Akane Yamaguchi | Even | Medium | 80-85 g | Standard, quick recoil | 10.5-12.0 |
The “Fab Four”
Women’s singles badminton ‘Fab Four’: Chen Yufei, Tai Tzu Ying, Akane Yamaguchi and An Se Young. The term refers to the few who lead the way among the elite, determine most major championships, and drive one another to be better, year after year.
Together, they define the narratives at the Olympics, World Championships, Asian Games and BWF World Tour. Finals often have two of them, and the matchups occur repeatedly on the calendar. Chen Yufei met Tai Tzu Ying in the Tokyo Olympics final, where Chen bagged gold. Akane Yamaguchi beat Tai for the World Championships in 2021, then took another in 2022 at the close of a season where Chen loomed deep into draws.
An Se Young the youngest of the fab four, translated a breakthrough year into a winning streak, amassing 16 tour wins in all. This brings her close to the output of her counterparts, though she remains in pursuit of that elusive World Championships gold. They meet in Indonesia, England, China, and more titles frequently swap hands amongst them, and multiple wins in Indonesia reinforce their World Tour stranglehold.
Each player presents a different style of strengths that keeps the matchups interesting. Chen Yufei’s game is anchored by balance and patience, sharp placement and strong court sense in the face of pressure. Her record backs that up: Olympic gold in Tokyo and three Sudirman Cup team titles with China show both individual class and team value.
Tai Tzu Ying relies on trickery, net feel, and rapid tempo shifts. During her day, points conclude on her terms. She’s said she’s going to retire after the Paris Olympics, a shift that could open the field and change how young players chart their plans. Speed, defense and short backswings that steal time from rivals make up Akane Yamaguchi’s game. Her two world titles signal consistency when it counts.
An Se Young delivers tireless defensive pursuit combined with sharp offensive selection and calm down the stretch. The only thing missing is a world championship gold, but given the amount of finals she makes, it feels inevitable.
Their combined heft has set the standard for the game. Match quality, fitness demands and tactical depth got better as each attempted to outdo the others, attracting more fans and spurring federations to invest in women’s singles. Together with Carolina Marin, they’re considered the best modern players, and their respective streaks have redefined expectations of speed, technique, and consistency from week to week.
Related Players
Chen Yufei’s ascent takes place amid an intricate circle of competitors, coaches, and colleagues. Finals often went through Tai Tzu Ying, Carolina Marin and An Se Young, whose styles forced her to inject speed, range and shot discipline. Within China, connections with Wang Zhiyi and He Bingjiao informed daily training benchmarks and cutthroat selection skirmishes.
Preceding luminaries like Li Xuerui and Wang Shixian defined the standard for consistency and court craft, providing Chen with an obvious blueprint for how to handle form, recovery and big-match jitters.
Chen Long
Chen Long, a compatriot Olympic gold medalist and former world no.1, remains the shadow reference point for Chen Yufei’s generation. He is married to Wang Shixian, a fellow top Chinese player who impacted the team’s strategic tendencies and training culture. Under the national program, Chen Long’s composed match plans, patient rally construction and defensive reads became a blueprint for younger players — including Chen Yufei — on how to win when pace is no longer sufficient.
While their events differ—men’s and women’s singles—their arcs echo: solid junior grounding, steady rankings climb, then Olympic finals under heavy pressure. Chen Long’s 2016 Olympic title and long run at the top reflect Chen Yufei’s Tokyo 2020 gold and consistent showings in Super 750 and Super 1000 finals.
Both added to China’s singles legacy by blending structure with adaptability: they win not just with skill, but with choices made at 19–20 points in tight games.
Other Contemporaries
At the world level, Chen Yufei’s lane is crowded with elite names: Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei), An Se Young (Korea), Carolina Marin (Spain), P.V. Sindhu (India), Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand), Nozomi Okuhara (Japan), and Akane Yamaguchi (Japan). Finals and late rounds tend to come down to contrasts—Tai’s deception and hold, Marin’s pace and roar, An’s retrieving and countering, Sindhu’s steep attack, Intanon’s touch, Okuhara’s defense-first patience.
Key stages such as the All England, World Championships, Asian Games and BWF World Tour Finals. Match-to-match swings are typical because a narrow loss in a Super 500 can invert to a straight-games win two weeks later at a Super 1000 when shuttle speed, hall drift or scheduling change.
Head-to-head landscape (directional view, records evolve):
- Tai Tzu Ying: Met in multiple finals (All England, World Tour). Trend: often close. Chen has led historically, but the gap has closed with crisper net control.
- An Se Young: Frequent recent finals. Trend: Chen often trails. Success comes when she breaks An’s rhythm early.
- Carolina Marin: High-intensity duels at Worlds and tour events. Trend: swings by form; tactical start decides many matches.
- P.V. Sindhu, Ratchanok Intanon, Nozomi Okuhara, Akane Yamaguchi: Results shift by venue and pace. Chen gets the edge when rallies remain controlled and mid-court control persists.
Friends on the team count. He Bingjiao shuttles quality sparring and selection. Wang Zhiyi tries Chen’s patience and shot selections under duress.
Earlier leaders Li Xuerui and Wang Shixian demonstrated how to peak at majors and reset after loss, lessons that still manifest in Chen’s shot selection late in games.
Future Outlook
Our immediate objectives are medals, particularly at the Badminton Asia Championships, and ranking points. Long-term targets indicate staying power, talent development, and a resume that withstood a tough badminton competition.
Gold Contender at Paris 2024 Olympics
Chen Yufei occupies the gold medal-winning category. She transfers Olympic match craft from Tokyo, where she rattled off long rallies, slow shuttles, and tight third games. That know-how counts in Paris, where drift and hall speed shift from session to session.
Her poise on big points, easy patterns that eliminate mistakes, and lockdown defense keep her in any 20-all match. The key examination is speed and diversity from competitors such as An Se-young, Akane Yamaguchi, Carolina Marin, and Tai Tzu-ying.
To stay ahead, she requires first-three-shot precision on serve and return, plus a crisper finish at the net. If she keeps her legs fresh through the week and takes down group matches in straight games, she reduces load and boosts championship chances.
Continued Strength on BWF World Tour and Asian Championships
Over a complete season, Chen’s stable floor provides her with a lot of semi and final appearances. She controls travel and back-to-back events nicely, which reflects in steady quarterfinals even on off days.
Look for additional deep runs at the Super 750 and Super 1000 level, where her rally base and patience yield dividends on slower courts, as they do in China and Indonesia.
At the Asian Champs, depth is savage, but she has a solid h2h set versus the majority of the non-Korea/Japanese players, and she usually triumphs when matches extend beyond 60 minutes.
Look at her scheduling skipping a mid-tier stop to peak for a major can be the little advantage that accumulates titles.
Evolving Style and Adaptation to New Generations
Young players provide more pace and daring angles. Chen’s answer is small, repeatable gains: faster split step on the backhand corner, early racket prep at the net, and a few more straight-line smashes to finish shorter rallies.
A small increase in midcourt interception—converting lifts to flat drives—can reduce energy consumption across long weeks. She benefits from mixed video scouting: patterns that bait cross-court pushes, plus patient blocks that force lifts late in the game.
If she continues to increase camouflage on the descent and keeps injury risk low with intelligent loading, her style ought to age well.
Follow the Journey and Legacy Building
Fans can follow her BWF ranking, draw placements and weekly form through official tournament pages and match replays. Other key indicators of momentum were less unforced errors in game twos, more net winners, and less medical timeouts.
Every title at Super 750 or higher, alongside podiums at Asian Games and Worlds, solidifies a legacy of dominance, durability, and high-floor performances through multiple seasons.
Final Thoughts
Chen Yufei is on solid footing. Fast legs, hard reads, pure shots. Big match nerve in close victories, such as the grind vs Tai Tzu Ying in Tokyo 2020. Style relies on pace shifts and clean lines. Her racket setup supports control and quick hands. The Fab Four mix keeps her edg3 sharp. Opponents push her. Fans get top-notch skill and intelligent play.
To follow next steps, see her shot mix in the front court. Notice how she transitions from lift to push to net kill. Watch her slice out to the backhand, then wallop it down the line. Little speed alterations speak volumes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Chen Yufei?
Chen Yufei is a Chinese women’s singles badminton player. An Olympic champ and multi BWF World Tour winner herself. Renowned for her steadiness and strategic rigor, she has been an elite-level player and a cornerstone of China’s national team.
What is Chen Yufei’s playing style?
Chen Yu, a dominant player in competitive badminton, plays a patient, all-court style game. She constructs points with accurate placement, solid defense, and rapid counterattack, winning by minimizing mistakes and pressing over long rallies during badminton tournaments.
Which racket does Chen Yufei use?
Chen Yufei, a top player in competitive badminton, is backed by Li-Ning. She typically uses Li-Ning rackets designed for control and fast swing speed, which may vary by season and badminton tournaments. Players often adjust their setups based on form and opponents in major competitions.
What does the “Fab Four” mean in women’s badminton?
The “Fab Four” is a fan name for the period’s top women’s singles players, typically including dominant players like Chen Yufei, An Se-young, Akane Yamaguchi, and Tai Tzu Ying. Their rankings and results in major competitions, such as badminton tournaments, may vary, but they underscore a prevailing nucleus at the summit.
Who are Chen Yufei’s main rivals?
Her regular opposition includes top players like An Se-young (Korea), Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei), Carolina Marin (Spain), and He Bingjiao (China). These head-to-heads frequently determine key titles in major badminton tournaments and championships on the BWF World Tour.
What are Chen Yufei’s biggest achievements?
With Olympic gold, All England titles, and multiple BWF World Tour wins, including her recent performances at the Badminton Asia Championships, she has claimed World Championships medals, showcasing her dominance in competitive badminton.
What is Chen Yufei’s future outlook?
Chen Yufei is still a major title threat in badminton tournaments. Her strengths – fitness, rally control, and match discipline – underpin sustained success. If she stays healthy and sharp, she stands poised to contend for top rankings and additional titles in the upcoming badminton competitions.
