China trashes Indonesia 5-0 in Uber Cup opening game
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.