On a Sunday afternoon inside Shenzhen Arena, Jason Gunawan walked onto court ranked world number 32 and left it holding the 2026 BWF China Masters trophy. The 22-year-old defeated training partner Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-9, 21-16 in an all-Hong Kong final, becoming the first player from Hong Kong to win a BWF World Tour Super 750 title.
The first alternate who cut down four seeds
Gunawan entered the tournament as the last man into the draw, a first alternate with no reputation at this level. He left with the scalps of four seeded players: Japan’s Koki Watanabe, world number one Jonatan Christie, defending champion Weng Hongyang, and fifth seed Anders Antonsen.
The semifinal against Antonsen defined his run. Gunawan dropped the opening game 15-21, saved himself in a tense 22-20 second game, and then closed a gruelling 98-minute comeback 21-16 in the third to reach a final nobody had predicted.
A training-hall duel on the biggest stage
Lee Cheuk Yiu had upset second seed Christo Popov to make his first World Tour final in 21 months, guaranteeing Hong Kong both spots for the first time in the HSBC BWF World Tour era. The final paired two men who share a coach, a hall, and years of daily sparring.
On the day, Gunawan’s speed and clarity of shot suffocated the contest. He ran through the opening game 21-9 and never let Lee settle in the second, closing with a controlled, unhurried authority that belied his ranking.
“It’s fantastic. I think it’s the first time we can test ourselves against each other in a title match,” Gunawan told reporters. “We know each other very well. We train a lot together.”
From Lucknow to Shenzhen, a quiet leap
Gunawan’s first World Tour title came at the 2025 Syed Modi International, a Super 300 event in Lucknow where he outlasted India’s Srikanth Kidambi in three games. Shenzhen vaulted him two World Tour tiers higher in a single week, reshaping the landscape of Hong Kong men’s singles.
Behind both finalists stood former Malaysian international Wong Choong Hann, who has built a squad of three distinctly dangerous international players. On a day Lee called “the best in badminton history for Hong Kong,” Gunawan stood as the quiet, precise proof of how far that programme has come.
