Three controversial matches in badminton

But it does have some controversial games nonetheless. Here we will look at 3 such controversial matches.

Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Baje vs Ronan Labar and Anne Tran - European Badminton Championship 2021

The first match we will talk about is from the European Badminton Championship in 2021. The match was between Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Baje vs Ronan Labar and Anne Tran. The former represents Denmark and the latter France. The match started fine but right from around the third point the French period employed a weird tactic. They started screaming and making excessive noises to celebrate points. They were successful in irritating their opponents doing so whether it was intentional or not. 

As the game goes on Labar continues to make different sounds and weird noises. He keeps yelling in different tunes. His partner also chipped in but not as much as him.

They were successful in winning the first game against the Danish pair. French were leading in the second game too in the beginning but then Christiansen started screaming, clearly in response to the French. The French continued their noises and with Danish replying in kind, it soon became a screaming contest. It breached the boundary of being ridiculous and was looking like a badly curated comedy sequence.

Finally, the umpire intervened in the middle of the 2nd game asking both teams to be sportsmanlike and to keep their emotions (noises) in check. But the umpire's word did not affect the players and the noises continued. Christiansen even started shouting “Allez Allez”, which is ‘come on’ in French. Umpire had to intervene again after which Labar stopped but Christiansen continued his screams. Soon Ronan also started screaming “Kom så”, which is Danish for ‘come on. This horrible display of sportsmanship continues till the end when the Danish pair manages to win the match.

After this match, many experts like Jim Laugesen argued for a change in the rules to regulate such behaviour. But sadly no official action has been taken against anyone involved, neither by their national boards nor by the organisers of the event. 

Alexandra Bøje and Mette Paulsen vs Sara Thygesen and Maiken Fruergaard - Danish National championship 2021

The next match which we will talk about also includes a Danish pair. It's the final match for the Danish National championship 2021. Alexandra Bøje and Mette Paulsen were facing Sara Thygesen and Maiken Fruergaard. The first four serves of the match from Bøje and Paulsen were called fault for being too high by the service empire Caroline worm. As per the rules, a player can serve a shuttle from more than a height of 115cm. The pair started complaining about the faults of the chair umpire. Bøje said to the umpire that it is the same service that she did in the Olympics at Tokyo and that the service umpire is wrongly calling it a fault.

Bøje and Paulsen were losing and getting increasingly frustrated due to this ordeal. Paulsen even broke down in tears towards the end of the first game. The match officials even tested the guiding instrument but no defects were found. Then surprisingly Caroline was replaced by a male service judge for the second game. This was very humiliating for Caroline as she was just doing her job. While leaving the courts tears could be seen in her eyes. 

The change of service judge did not change anything else. The new judge too started calling fault on Bøje and Paulsen. Frustrated by this Bøje and Paulsen even thought about forfeiting the match but their coach stopped them from doing so saying “we must play on no matter how it goes”. 

In the end, Sara Thygesen and Maiken Fruergaard won the championship ending the ordeal for Bøje and Paulsen. After this incident, Bøje and Paulsen were banned from all tournaments inside Denmark for 3 months. They also had to issue a public apology for their behaviour.

Kento Momota vs Shi Yu Qi - The Thomas Cup 2021

The last match that we will talk about is from one of the most prestigious tournaments of Badminton, The Thomas Cup and The Uber Cup. The match was between Kento Momota representing Japan and Shi Yu Qi representing China. In the beginning, it was a very close contest. The first game went right down to the wire with Momota winning it 22 - 20. But the second game was a stark difference from the first one, Momota seems to have found his mojo and Qi seems to have lost his. Momota completely dominated the second game with his precise plays and cunning setups and the scoreboard was reading 19 - 5 in favour of Momota. 

Soon Momota scored another point taking him to the match point. It was at this point that controversy strikes. Qi went to the chair umpire asking to retire from the match on the very last point! Coaches and the umpire tried to reason with him but to no avail. He finally retired and Momota won the match. The reason given by Qi for his retirement is an old foot injury. But in the post-match interview, he also hinted that he retired because that way he “technically didn't lose the match”.

This unsportsmanlike and cowardly conduct drew a lot of criticism from the fans and players alike. Qi could have just stood on the court and let Momota flick one serve to end the game but he chose to hideaway. While in the same tournament Christo Popov chose to play out a game even while his leg was cramping so much that he couldn't stand winning him admiration of fans and also of the Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen.