Yao Jie

Yao Jie
Personal information
Birth name	姚洁
Country	Netherlands
Born	(1977-04-10) 10 April 1977 (age 39)
Handedness	Right
Women's Singles
Current ranking	32 (2 May 2013)
Medal record Women's Badminton Representing  Netherlands European Badminton Championships 2002 Malmö Singles 2004 Geneva Singles 2006 Den Bosch Singles 2012 Karlskrona Singles European Mixed Team Badminton Championships 2002 Malmö Mixed team 2004 Geneva Mixed team 2006 Den Bosch Mixed team European Women's Team Championships 2006 Thessalonica Women's team 2008 Almere Women's team 2012 Amsterdam Women's team Uber Cup 2006 Tokyo Women's team
BWF profile

Yao Jie (simplified Chinese: 姚洁; traditional Chinese: 姚潔; pinyin: Yáo Jié; born 10 April 1977) is a Chinese-born female 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. 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 Lee 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.

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Wikipedia