Xie Xingfang

Xie Xingfang (simplified Chinese: 谢杏芳; traditional Chinese: 謝杏芳; pinyin: Xiè Xìngfāng; Cantonese Yale: Che6 Hang6 Fong1; born January 8, 1981, in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China) is a female badminton player from the People's Republic of China who has twice won women's singles at the BWF World Championships.

Her first big title was in girl's doubles, with her provincial team mate Zhang Jiewen, at the World Junior Championships in 1998. She has also won a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in mixed doubles with Cai Yun. Yet once she entered the Chinese national team, she switched to singles. 2004 was her "break-out" year as she won several top tier titles on the world circuit. Xie and her senior compatriot and rival Zhang Ning were the most dominant international women's singles players of the mid and late parts of the decade, though they were pressed by younger teammates such as Zhu Lin, Lu Lan, Jiang Yanjiao and Wang Yihan. Not an especially elegant looking stylist, Xie's strengths were her reach, quickness, consistency, and court sense. She was a member of China's world champion Uber Cup teams of 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Her last appearance as a player in a major badminton competition, came at the Chinese National Games in October 2009.

During much of her badminton career Xie was romantically involved with fellow Chinese badminton star Lin Dan. In 2006 Xie and Lin won their respective women's and men's singles titles at the IBF World Championships in Madrid. Xie had also won the world title in 2005 when Lin finished second to Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat. Xie Xingfang and Lin Dan were married in Guangzhou, China, on Dec 13th 2010, after 7 years of dating.