Xia Xuanze
Xia Xuanze is a former badminton player from China 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 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 in the playoff for third place. Earlier in that season, Xia had won the prestigious All-England Championships over eighteen-year-old Taufik Hidayat. He captured men's singles at the IBF World Championships in 2003 by defeating Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann. Finally, in international team play, he was a member of the China national [badminton team|Chinese squad] that ended a long drought by capturing the highly coveted Thomas Cup in 2004.In the 2010 Thomas Cup, Xia coached Chen Jin, witnessing his country win 3–0 over Indonesia for their fourth consecutive Thomas Cup.
In 2017, Xia Xuanze together with Zhang Jun replaced Li Yongbo 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| Year | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | Pavilion 3, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia |  World ChampionshipsMen's singles
|
gold1