After starting badminton at the age of 9, Yigang entered the Hunan team when he turned 13.

In 96, he won the silver medal in the Asian Championships, losing the final to Indonesia's Jeffer Rosobin.

Besides this he won another medal at the Asian Championships and again qualified for year-end Grand Prix Finals.

His last match was played in Paris, where he won the 2002 French Open, then an International Challenge tournament where afterwards he retired from National team.

In 2018, he replaced Zhang Ning as National Women's singles team coach after a poor showing in Uber Cup.