England fields second-best team against Denmark

JAKARTA (JP): Underdog England, aiming to stay in Division 1 of the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship, will field its second-best team in its opening match against the 1999 runner up Denmark on Monday.

England's doubles coach Rexy Mainaky told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview from Seville, Spain, that the squad decided to field its full team against Indonesia in Tuesday's match regarding its bigger chance to win.

"Competing against Denmark means we already lost two points from the singles as they have world number ones Peter Gade Christensen and Camilla Martin.

"Denmark will also likely take points from the women's doubles of Rikke Olsen and Helene Kirkegaard. It can also win in the mixed doubles with Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager.

"Our biggest chance is only in the men's doubles as Denmark will field Michael Sogaard and Jim Laugesen.

England, which eliminated Malaysia to join the Division 1 two years ago, will field Mark Constable in the men's singles, Tracey Hallam in the women's singles, Anthony Clark and Ian Sullivan in the men's doubles, Nathan Robertson and Donna Kellogg in the mixed doubles and Sara Sankey and Ella Miles in the women's doubles.

Constable replaced Colin Haughton, who suffered back injury. Haughton will only compete at the World Championships to be slated at the same venue next week. He will face Indonesian Marlev Mainaky in the first round.

Rexy said that Indonesia's weakness in the women's singles and doubles will be England's great chance to steal points.

"We all know that Indonesia no longer has tough players in the women's sectors. That's our chance to win. However, we will evaluate tonight's performance before deciding the team line-up tomorrow afternoon.

Monday's match was scheduled to start at 6.00 p.m. local time (11.00 p.m. Jakarta Time).

The other group will see defending champion China, with an eye to write history by bringing home the Sudirman Cup for the fourth time, faces another underdog Sweden.

China will field its Olympics mixed doubles champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling to meet Frederik Bergstrom and Jenny Karlsson. In the men's singles Chinese Ji Xinpeng will face Indonesian-born George Rimarcdi.

Olympics women's singles gold medalist Gong Zhichao will see Marina Andrievskaya while men's doubles Liu Yong and Zhang Wei will meet Henrik Andersson and Bergstrom. In the women's doubles Gao Ling and Huang Sui will meet Johanna Persson and Sara Persson.

Indonesia's head coach Christian Hadinata ensured that he would field women's singles Lidya Djaelawidjaja, whose physical fitness is better than Yuli Marfuah's, in Tuesday's match against England.

Lidya said that she would be prepared against England, which will likely field Julia Mann.

"Based on the All England result in March, Yuli was beaten by Julia while I have a better head-to-head against her," Lidya was quoted as saying by Antara.

Meanwhile, men's doubles Candra Wijaya would likely miss the opening match against England as he complained of being sick.

"I don't feel well, maybe it's because of the food," said the Olympics champion.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that the Gibraltar team, playing under protest for being unable to use its name at the biennial event, made an unhappy debut, as it was thrashed 5-0 by Luxembourg. (yan)