Sweet revenge for Susi Susanti

Sweet revenge for Susi Susanti

TAIPEI (Agencies): Indonesia's Susi Susanti produced a sweet revenge over Chinese arch rival Ye Zhaoying in the US$125,000 Taipei Masters badminton championships final yesterday.

A more tactical looking Susi employed her characteristic overhead lobs to a 11-5, 11-2 rout of the top seed and world champion Ye.

Susi, beaten by Ye in their last three meetings last year, maintained a tough defense, while attacking aggressively, leaving Ye exhausted.

"I knew I was going to defeat her this time," Susi said after the match, adding she believed her defensive tactics had outwitted Ye.

Like the men, both women had played until late Saturday in the semis. Susi came back from a set down to beat Wang Chen in a a tough three-setter on Saturday night.

For the first time ever China's players took part in a tournament held in Chinese Taipei.

In the men's singles, Dong Jiong of China shrugged off an overnight game and lack of sleep to overpower Malaysian Rashid Sidek 15-11, 15-4 and take the crown.

Looking none the worse for his overnight semi against world number three Alan Budikusuma, the world ranked number six kept up the pace, moving skillfully around the court and giving his 27- year-old opponent no chances.

"I am really happy I won. There were so many top players, like Budikusuma ... I think the key to my victory this time was because I had better tactics and more enduring strength," Dong said after the singles final.

The men's doubles final saw Indonesian pair of Denny Kantono and Antonius made a short work of Swedish team of Par-Gunnar Jonsson and Peter Axelsson 15-6, 15-7.

In the women's doubles Chinese world number one duo of Gu Jun and Ge Fei easily beat Kim Shih-young and Kim Mee-hyang of South Korea 15-8, 15-3.

Denmark's Michael Soegaard and Rikke Olsen beat the Chinese pair of Sun Man and Lin Jianjun 15-3, 7-15, 15-12 to take the mixed doubles title.