Indonesia hopes dashed in tight match
Indonesia hopes dashed in tight match
Agencies, Jakarta
Indonesia's hopes for a title at the World Badminton
Championships were shattered after Candra Wijaya and Sigit
Budiarto lost their men's doubles final match on Sunday in
Birmingham.
Candra/Sigit lost to Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen of
Denmark ... on the day, in which China triumphed in three of the
five events.
The Candra/Sigit failure left Indonesia with no title from the
biennial world badminton tournament. It is the sixth time
Indonesia has come home empty-handed since the inaugural event in
1977.
China won the men's and women's singles through Xia Xuanze and
Zhang Ning respectively, and the women's doubles by Gao
Ling/Huang Sui.
The other victory went to South Korea in the mixed doubles,
courtesy of Kim Dong-moon/Ra Kyung-min.
Candra and Sigit sailed to victory together in the 1997 event.
This year they failed to live up to the glory of compatriots Tony
Gunawan/Halim Haryanto, who took the 2001 championship in
Seville, Spain.
China won both singles titles as two new champions, Xia Xuanze
and Zhang Ning, were crowned at the world championships.
Xia, who won the All-England Open title in this same arena
three years ago, overcame the surprise finalist from Malaysia,
Wong Choon Hann, in an exhausting, acrobatic and unpredictable
81-minute final by 15-6, 13-15, 15-6, AFP reported.
Zhang, who at the age of 28 may not get another chance of a
major title, took her opportunity superbly, outplaying her
compatriot Gong Ruina, the defending champion 11-6, 11-3 with a
dazzling array of creative strokes.
However it was the men's final which was the showpiece of the
afternoon's five finals, producing a wavering winner who had been
odds on at the start - because he had won all seven previous
encounters with Wong - but who threatened for a while to let it
slip away.
Xia's pattern of playing pushes to the net or overhead drops,
and seeking a lift from which to attack was a winning one, and it
carried him to leads of one game and 12-9 and 13-11 in the
second.
But at that stage the thought of becoming world champion
appeared to affect him.
Two uncharacteristic mistakes allowed Wong back to 13-13 and
the chance to escape, with two fine winners, to a third game.
"I have had 13 years experience," claimed the 25-year-old from
Zhejiang.
"And it's how you learn to deal with these situations which
counts. You make mistakes but you remain calm and concentrated on
what you have to do."
Certainly Xia kept his sense of perspective well, twice
laughing when he made mistakes, once as he fell over and on
another occasion as he made an air shot under pressure.
Until six-all in the third the match remained in the balance.
Then Xia managed fitfully to get his attacks going again,
forcing Wong to make more lifts and denying the Malaysian the
chances to use his spectacular airborne attacks.
Xia edged gradually away to a victory which he celebrated by
placing his forehead on the floor.
"It won't change my life," he said.
"This is just a step to the next stage. I want to win the
Olympics."
It was the eighth time out of eight that Wong had lost to Xia.
"I have to work on it physically and mentally to overcome this
barrier," he reckoned.
The women's final was a much briefer affair, though it
certainly had its entertaining moments.
Earlier Zhang Jun and Gao Ling also lost a world title, the
mixed doubles, when they were well beaten for the second time in
four months by the former champions Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-
min.
Indeed the Chinese pair might have lost more heavily to the
brilliant Koreans than by 15-7, 15-8, for they were consistently
outplayed and only picked up three or four consolation points at
the end of each game when they were already down and out.
Kim, widely regarded as the best doubles player in the world
when fully fit, has now won eight Grand Prix doubles titles in
the last 16 months, and the victory was consolation for Kim's
defeats in two world finals last time, two years ago in Seville.
China took the women's doubles title with Gao Ling/Huang Sui
(Chn) beating compatriots Wei Yili/Zhao Tingting 15-8, 15-11.
World Badminton Championships
Results of finals on Sunday:
Men's singles
5-Xia Xuanze (Chn) bt 9-Wong Choong Hann (Mas) 15-6, 13-15, 15-6
Women's singles
2-Zhang Ning (Chn) bt 4-Gong Ruina (Chn) 11-6, 11-3
Mixed doubles
9-Kim Dong-moon/Ra Kyung-min (Kor) bt 1-Zhang Jun/Gao Ling (Chn)
15-7 15-8
Women's doubles
3-Gao Ling/Huang Sui (Chn) bt 1-Wei Yili/Zhao Tingting (Chn) 15-
8, 15-11
Men's doubles
11-Sigit Budiarto/Candra Wijaya (Ina) v 4-Lars Paaske/Jonas
Rasmussen (Den) ?