China trashes Indonesia 5-0 in Uber Cup opening game

Zakki Hakim, Jakarta

Defending champion and top seed China proved to be too strong for Indonesia, when it crushed the 10th-seeded host 5-0 in the opening Group W match of the 2004 Uber Cup here on Friday.

The Chinese lived up to their ranking, drubbing their Indonesian opponents with convincing wins.

Only Gong Ruina had to battled it out in three sets against Silvi Antarini in the opening match.

Gong recovered from a second set defeat to seal an 11-1, 3-11, 11-3 victory to give the champion a 1-0 lead.

Following Gong's victory, Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen outplayed Jo Novita and Lilyana Natsir 15-5, 15-2 in the doubles before the Chinese chalked an insurmountable 3-0 lead through Zhou Mi, who breezed past Maria Kristin 11-1, 11-1.

They wrapped up the sweep with wins in the remaining two ties, Wei Yili and Zhou Tingting thumping Gresya Polii and Lita Nurlita 15-2, 15-4 and Xie Xingfang running past Adrianti Firdasari 11-1, 11-6.

Despite the crushing loss, Silvi looked delighted by her own tough performance against Gong, saying she could play a level game with the world's best player.

"She could have been defeated," Silvi said afterwards, adding the match gave her a valuable lesson ahead of her Netherlands match on Sunday.

"If I could force the world No.1 to a three-set match, then I should be able to overcome her in other games," she said.

Ivana Lie, the singles' coach, said the result against China was not by any means a final verdict, with the Netherlands the next to play.

"China is very strong, as you could see for yourself," she said. Learning from the match against China, Ivana said she would improve her players' strategies in the next game.

Silvi had played extremely well in the second set when she was able to push Gong to every corner of the court before stealing the set, she said.

However, Silvi failed to hang on in the third set. She fell to a string of lame overhead passes, which Gong effectively exploited to win point by point.

Silvi said that after she stretched herself in the second set to match Gong's speed, she fell short of stamina, which resulted in her losing speed in the decider.

"If you lose your speed significantly, any kind of strategy is unworkable," she said.

Maria, meanwhile, was totally overpowered by world No. 3 Zhou Mi, with Ivana admitting later the Chinese player was far more superior in term of speed, strokes and strategy.

Chinese team manager Li Yongbo said the match against Indonesia was up to their expectations although he complained about the air-conditioning system in the hall.

"The wind blows too strongly in one direction, allowing Gong and Silvi to take a positional advantage and win easily over each other (in the first two sets)," Li was quoted as saying by Chinese journalist Gao Kai.

Li is known for his reluctance to give interviews in English to non-Chinese speaking journalists.

Meanwhile, Gong admitted Silvi had improved from their last meet in the 2003 Hong Kong Open when Gong won 11-6, 11-3.

With the Netherlands to face in their next match, China is a favorite to cruise easily into the quarterfinals. Indonesia will also have to overcome the Netherlands to take second place.