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.