China pulls out of Indonesian Open in visa row

China pulls out of Indonesian Open in visa row

BEIJING (Agencies): China has pulled out of the Sony
Indonesian Open badminton tournament accusing the host nation of
failing to issue team visas on time, a Chinese Badminton
Association official said yesterday.

The Chinese team, including world women's singles title holder
Ye Zhaoying and Olympic women's doubles champions Ge Fei and Gu
Jun, were not granted visas until Monday evening, the day before
the tournament was due to start, said the official, who refused
to be identified.

"The host told us last night that we could leave for Jakarta
today, but the competition will be in full swing when we arrive
there," the Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese team coach Li
Yongbo as saying.

Players usually arrive in the host city a day before the start
of the competition to give them time to adapt to local conditions
and to regain form, Xinhua was quoted by Reuter as saying.

The Indonesian Badminton Association had offered to postpone
the Chinese team's matches by one day but Li complained his
players would then have to play more matches the next day, it
said.

"That is too tough. No one can bear it. To play under such
abnormal circumstance will affect players' results and rankings,
so we have to withdraw," Li said.

It was the third time Indonesia had granted visas too late for
a Chinese team to attend a competition, the association official
said.

The team was now in Malaysia and would travel directly to the
Singapore Open next week, he said.

In Surakarta, Central Java, the tournament organizers have to
stage 33 qualifying matches on July 14 and July 15 at the Manahan
Sports Hall.

The main draw is played from today to Sunday.

The men's singles and the women's doubles qualifying matches
were played Monday, while the rest were played yesterday.