Xia Xuanze (born 5 January 1979) is a former

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

who played singles at the world level from the late 1990s through the first few years of the 21st century. Now he is a singles coach for the national team of China.

Career

At one time or another he experienced victory in most of badminton's biggest events. The exception came in his sole appearance at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

when he was beaten in the semifinals of the 2000 Games in Sydney by Indonesia's Hendrawan. Xia settled for a bronze medal there after defeating Denmark's

Peter Gade } Peter Høeg Gade (born 14 December 1976 in Aalborg, Denmark)BWF World Ranking
Bwfbadminto ...

in the playoff for third place. Earlier in that season, Xia had won the prestigious All-England Championships over eighteen-year-old

Taufik Hidayat Taufik Hidayat (born 10 August 1981) is an Indonesian retired badminton player. He is a former World, Olympic, Asian Games, and Asian champion, and the youngest world number one in the men's singles. Hidayat has won the Indonesia Open six tim ...

. He captured men's singles at the

IBF World Championships The BWF World Championships, formerly known as IBF World Championships, and also known as the World Badminton Championships, is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament is one of the most prestigious i ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

by defeating Malaysia's

Wong Choong Hann Wong Choong Hann (; born 17 February 1977) is a former badminton player from Malaysia. He is the first Malaysian to win a medal in the men's singles event at the BWF World Championships. Currently he is the coaching director for the Malaysia n ...

. Finally, in international team play, he was a member of the Chinese squad that ended a long drought by capturing the highly coveted

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships ha ...

(men's world team competition and trophy) in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

. In 2010 Thomas Cup, Xia coached Chen Jin, witnessing his country win 3–0 over Indonesia for their fourth consecutive

. In 2017, Xia Xuanze together with Zhang Jun replaced

Li Yongbo Li Yongbo (; born September 18, 1962) is a retired Chinese male badminton player and the former head coach of Chinese National Badminton Team. Career As a player, he was a men's doubles specialist noted for his quickness, reflexes, and power. ...

as head coach of the Chinese badminton team.

Player attributes

Xia's game was marked by impressive speed and agility, aggressive and accurate net play, and adequate, if not overwhelming, overhead power. The power he used in his legs allowed him to "play the shot" very early. This attribute, combined with very sophisticated and consistent deceptive shots, gave some of his opponents the opportunity to win very few points at all.

Achievements

Olympic Games

''Men's singles''

World Championships

''Men's singles''

Asian Championships

''Men's singles''

IBF World Grand Prix

The World Badminton Grand Prix sanctioned by International Badminton Federation (IBF) from 1983 to 2006. ''Men's singles''

References

1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Wenzhou Badminton players from Zhejiang Chinese male badminton players Badminton players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players of China Olympic bronze medalists for China Olympic medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2002 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for China Asian Games medalists in badminton Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games World No. 1 badminton players Chinese badminton coaches {{PRChina-Olympic-medalist-stub