RI loses to China in Sudirman Cup
RI loses to China in Sudirman Cup
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Agencies): China celebrated its return
to the badminton world's top spot with a victory in the Sudirman
Cup mixed team final against hot favorite Indonesia.
Ye Zhaoying and Sun Jun demonstrated their superb attacking
play which shot down world women's singles and men's singles
number one, Susi Susanti and Hariyanto Arbi, to give China a 3-0
winning lead over Indonesia.
The stage was set for 20-year-old Sun Jun to capture the
Sudirman Cup with a 15-7, 9-15, 15-11 win over Hariyanto.
Sun, considered by many as too young to challenge the world's
top few players, held his nerve admirably.
Hariyanto almost handed 11th ranked Sun the first game as he
committed a whole host of unforced errors. Hariyanto, finalist of
the 1995 All-England championship, leveled at 1-1.
But Sun, the 1995 Asian championship runner-up, hit smash
after smash to win on his second match point with an accurate
drop shot.
Underdog China, which beat Denmark 4-1 in Saturday's
semifinals, took a 1-0 lead when it won the opening women's
doubles clash.
World number one pair Ge Fei and Gu Jun beat Indonesia's Zelin
Resiana and Elisa 15-9, 15-10 in 50 minutes to put China two
matches away from their first ever title in this mixed world team
event.
Resiana and Elisa had little answer to the good positioning of
the Chinese pair whose retrieving was exceptional.
Indonesia, hoping to win the biennial event for the first time
since 1989, was the overwhelming favorite to do so when it upset
title holder South Korea in the semifinals. Indonesia won both
Thomas Cup and Uber Cup last year.
Alarm bells started ringing in the Indonesian camp when world
and Olympic champion Susi continued her losing streak at the
championship.
China's world number six Ye completely outplayed her rival --
considered possibly the greatest player of all-time -- by 11-2,
11-3 to put China 2-0 ahead.
It was only Susi's third loss in 1995. Susanti fell to China-
born Swede Lim Xiaoqing in the All-England semifinal in March,
and to Asian Games champion Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea earlier
in the Sudirman Cup.
Ye has beaten both world number one Susanti and number two
Bang in this event and is among the favorites for next week's
singles title.