England fields second-best team against Denmark

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)