Fallen giant

The women's failings, though, pale in comparison to the struggles of the men's team, which has never managed to fill the void left by the retirement of legend Lin Dan.

After two routine Thomas Cup group-stage victories over France and Algeria, the Chinese men lost 3-2 to Denmark on Thursday before crashing out of the competition with a humbling 3-0 loss to Indonesia－a repeat of last year's final result.

"My performance was really weak and I was too hesitant. When we were tied at 11-11, I was too nervous and missed many chances. I tried to make some adjustments, but it was too late," said Chinese singles player Zhao Junpeng.

It was a similar story for 22-year-old Li Shifeng, who described his own singles defeat as "unacceptable".

Team China owns 10 Thomas Cup titles in total, winning five in a row during its heyday from 2004 to 2012 with Lin spearheading the charge.

However, the last of those triumphs was in 2018, with the team's failure to find successors to singles ace Lin and doubles legend Cai seeing China slip down the international rankings.

Cai reckons more patience is needed with the squad's rebuild.

"The defeats are not what we wanted, but I believe such defeats will motivate our players to improve," he said. "I believe our players will try even harder in the future."