Liu-Hsu defeated world champion pair in China Masters, big upset!

Chinese Taipei pair Liu Kuang Heng and Hsu Yin-Hui pulled off a major upset on Wednesday by defeating newly crowned world champions Thom Gicquel and Delfin Delruy in straight games at the BWF Super 750 tournament China Masters.

The world's 48th mixed doubles pair showed excellent performance and won against Gicquel-Delru 23-21, 21-10 in just 38 minutes. They came back from behind in the first game and then dominated the second game to defeat the French pair and knock them out of the tournament.

The Liu/Hsu pair were trailing 17-19 in the first game, but made a brilliant comeback. They leveled the score, saved a game point and took the first game 23-21 in a tightly contested match. After this his confidence increased and in the second game he played brilliantly and registered an easy victory of 21-10.

“We knew he was the recent world champion, so we wanted to give our best performance against him. We were even more motivated to beat him,” Liu said, according to the BWF. Talking about their impressive win against the reigning world champion pair, Hsu said the biggest reason for their success was their aggressive play.

He told that he stuck to the attacking strategy throughout the match and was successful in implementing it properly on the field. “It was our attack. We did what we had to do and executed our game plan well. That gave us a chance to take the lead early,” he said.

According to Liu, the dramatic change in the first game also changed the course of the match. This boosted the confidence of the pair, who were considered weak, while increasing the pressure on their rivals. “The pressure was on them and we were in a good mood. That helped us stick to our style of play with even more confidence,” Liu said.

The win continues Liu/Hsu's excellent form. The pair won the US Open title at the end of June and also made it to the finals of the Canada Open the very next week. It is clear from the continuous good performance that the confidence and rhythm of both the players is continuously improving.

Hsu said a major reason for his success was improving some important aspects of the game. Especially the coordination between the two players has improved and they are playing with more effective strategy than before at the beginning of the rally. “The main reason is our communication and that we set up our serves and receives well. We have been working on these things in training and now the results are visible,” he said.

At the same time, this defeat was very disappointing for Giquel and Delru. The journey of his first tournament, being played just two weeks after becoming world champion, ended with this match. Gicquel said that his pair had started the match well, but later they could not maintain their momentum.

His game weakened as the match progressed and he struggled to perform at his usual level. “It wasn't a good performance. The start was OK, but then we got a little tense. We forgot to play our game and make them move,” Gicquel admitted.