Yao Jie

Yao Jie
姚洁
Yao Jie; 姚洁
Personal information
Country	Netherlands
Born	10 April 1977 (age 47)
Handedness	Right
Women's singles
Current ranking	32 (2 May 2013)
Medal record
Women's badminton
Representing Netherlands
World Cup
Uber Cup
European Championships
European Mixed Team Championships
European Women's Team Championships
Representing China
East Asian Games
World Junior Championships
	BWF profile

Yao Jie (simplified Chinese: 姚洁; traditional Chinese: 姚潔; pinyin: Yáo Jié; born 10 April 1977^[2]) is a Chinese-born badminton player who now resides in the Netherlands.

Yao is one of a number of badminton players who have emigrated from China, in part, because the depth of badminton talent in that country has made it difficult for them to be selected for major international competitions. Prior to her move to the Netherlands, she won the BWF World Junior Championships in girls' doubles with Liu Lu in 1994 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and helped the Chinese national women's team clinch a gold medal at the 1997 East Asian Games.^[3] But her passion was for the ladies singles event.

Since moving to the Netherlands Yao Jie has won the women's singles event 4 times at the Dutch Open (2003, 2008, 2009 & 2011), she won the Thailand Open twice (2004, 2005), and the biennial European Championships once (2002), and a high number of 11 Dutch National Championships. Nine times the Dutch crown in singles and twice in doubles. She was also a 3-times European bronze medalist in the 2004, 2006 European Badminton Championships and 2012 European Badminton Championships. She won the Velo Dutch International twice, in 2001 beating Mia Audina 9–11, 11–1, 13–10 and in 2012 beating Malaysian Sonia Su Ya Cheah 19–21, 21–9, 21–12 in the final. She also won the Italian International in 2011 beating Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva in the final 21–11, 21–17 and won the Finnish International Open in 2012 beating Canadian Michelle Li 22–20, 21–19. Yao Jie was a runner-up to Zhang Ning at the China Open in 2006, runner-up to Juliane Schenk of Germany at the 2010 Dutch Open, runner-up to Li Xuerui of China at the 2011 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold and runner-up to Juliane Schenk at the 2012 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold.

Her performances at 2004 Olympic Games and at recent BWF World Championships have not been among her strongest. She was eliminated in the round of 16 at the Athens Games by Hong Kong's Wang Chen and has proceeded no farther than that round in any of her World Championship appearances. A big disappointment was her non-participation at the 2008 Olympic Games in her native China, despite being qualified by the international norm, but not by the stricter Dutch qualifying norm. In January 2009 Yao Jie married Dutch player Eric Pang.

In March 2011 Yao Jie was part of the Dutch Fource team, together with Dutch top players Dicky Palyama, Judith Meulendijks and Eric Pang. This team was formed as a result of a conflict with the Nederlandse Badminton Bond sponsored by Yonex, and these four players were non Yonex sponsored players, Yao Jie playing for sponsor Carlton. The conflict heightened in 2011 when these four non Yonex sponsored players were not included in the National squad to play the European Team Championships in Amsterdam. Despite all these juridical sponsor wranglings, Yao Jie managed to qualify for the London Olympics. At the 2012 Olympic Games in the Women's Singles Yao Jie won Group F by beating Akvilė Stapušaitytė of Lithuania 21–16, 21–7 and Ragna Ingólfsdóttir of Iceland 21–12, 25–23. After the group stage, in the knock-out stage round of 16 Yao Jie lost to Saina Nehwal of India 14–21, 16–21. Saina later progressed to win India's first Olympic badminton medal, a bronze.

Nowadays Yao Jie has her own Badminton Academy at her hometown Wuhan in China and is ambassador for Dutch Badminton in sports and cultural exchanges between the Netherlands and China.

Achievements

World Cup

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2005	Olympic Park, Yiyang, China	Zhang Ning	Walkover	Bronze

European Championships

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2002	Baltiska hallen, Malmö, Sweden	Mia Audina	8–6, 7–3, 7–1	Gold
2004	Queue d’Arve Sport Center, Geneva, Switzerland	Pi Hongyan	4–11, 6–11	Bronze
2006	Maaspoort Sports and Events, Den Bosch, Netherlands	Xu Huaiwen	Walkover	Bronze
2012	Telenor Arena, Karlskrona, Sweden	Juliane Schenk	13–21, 10–21	Bronze

World Junior Championships

Girls' doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
1994	Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Liu Lu	Qiang Hong Wang Li	17–16, 7–15, 15–7	Gold

Mixed doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
1994	Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang Bing	Zhang Wei Qiang Hong	8–15, 6–15	Silver

BWF Grand Prix

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017. The World Badminton Grand Prix was sanctioned by the International Badminton Federation from 1983 to 2006.

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
1995	Brunei Open	Zeng Yaqiong	11–5, 12–10	Winner
1996	German Open	Margit Borg	11–1, 11–0	Winner
1998	Dutch Open	Zhou Mi	13–10, 11–13, 4–11	Runner-up
2001	Dutch Open	Mia Audina	5–7, 7–1, 5–7, 5–7	Runner-up
2002	German Open	Pi Hongyan	11–4, 9–11, 7–11	Runner-up
2003	Dutch Open	Dai Yun	13–10, 3–0 Retired	Winner
2004	Thailand Open	Jun Jae-youn	11–8, 2–11, 11–6	Winner
2004	Dutch Open	Pi Hongyan	5–11, 4–11	Runner-up
2004	Denmark Open	Xie Xingfang	9–11, 11–8, 7–11	Runner-up
2005	Thailand Open	Xu Huaiwen	11–6, 11–7	Winner
2005	Dutch Open	Xu Huaiwen	7–11, 2–11	Runner-up
2006	China Open	Zhang Ning	14–21, 5–21	Runner-up
2008	Dutch Open	Linda Zetchiri	21–14, 21–13	Winner
2009	Dutch Open	Judith Meulendijks	21–11, 21–12	Winner
2010	Dutch Open	Juliane Schenk	13–21, 21–14, 15–21	Runner-up
2011	Dutch Open	P. V. Sindhu	21–16, 21–17	Winner
2011	Bitburger Open	Li Xuerui	8–21, 9–21	Runner-up
2012	Bitburger Open	Juliane Schenk	10–21, 21–15, 23–25	Runner-up

BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

IBF/BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2001	Dutch International	Mia Audina	9–11, 11–1, 13–10	Winner
2009	Belgian International	Misaki Matsutomo	21–14, 14–21, 21–16	Winner
2011	Italian International	Petya Nedelcheva	21–11, 21–17	Winner
2012	Finnish Open	Michelle Li	22–20, 21–19	Winner
2012	Dutch International	Soniia Cheah	19–21, 21–9, 21–12	Winner

BWF International Challenge tournament

IBF International tournament

Record Against Selected Opponents

Includes results from all competitions against Super Series finalists, World Championship semifinalists, Olympic quarterfinalists, and all Olympic opponents.^[4]