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.