Shuttlers who secure the winning point for their countries at the Thomas & Uber Cup are sometimes not the biggest names, but end up becoming national heroes and etch their name into the record books.
Stadium Astro highlights three names who were hardly superstars, but became one overnight after winning the decisive point for their nation.
Advertisement
Takuma Ueda (vs Malaysia 2014 Thomas Cup final)
In a titanic battle that lasted almost six hours, the final match between Ueda and Liew Daren in the third men’s singles would decide victory.
There was everything at stake, Japan were bidding to win this prestigious trophy for the first time in their history while Malaysia were desperate to capture the same silverware since 1992.
Ueda took the first game 21-12, but Liew stormed to win the second 21-18. The deciding game was nail-biting, but ultimately went the way of the Japanese who won 21-17 to break Malaysian hearts.
Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (vs Indonesia 2016 Thomas Cup final)
Denmark were on the cusp of history to become the first European nation to win the Thomas Cup that was dominated by Asian teams, particularly China and Indonesia.
The Danes faced a common powerhouse in Indonesia who were stacked with quality, but the team in red brought their Viking fighting spirit to match their counterparts.
With the scores level at 2-2, it was up to the unheralded Vittinghus or Ihsan Maulana to become heroes.
Vittinghus delivered in style by beating his opponent in straight games to make history for Denmark.
Sim Yu-jin (vs China 2022 Uber Cup final)
South Korea were not exactly massive underdogs going into this final against a star-studded Chinese side, due to their doubles’ firepower and a strong leading singles contender in An Se-young.
But when An lost to Chen Yu Fei, the South Koreans knew they needed to find another point against the defending champions.
So when Sim faced up to current world number two Wang Zhi Yi in the final match, the odds were heavily stacked against her.
But Sim surprised everyone with a mammoth win, beating Wang 28-26, 18-21, 21-8 to gift her nation their maiden Uber Cup success.
