The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : China blanks Indonesia to defend Uber Cup title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Badminton

China blanks Indonesia to defend Uber Cup title

JAKARTA: Defending champion China defeated host Indonesia 3-0 on Saturday to win its sixth straight Uber Cup title.

Xie Xinfang set the tone for China with a 21-8, 21-15 win over Maria Kristin in the first singles match at Jakarata’s Istora Stadium.

China took a 2-0 lead when Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen posted a 21-15, 19-21, 21-16 doubles win over Lilyana Natsir and Marissa Vita. Lu Lan completed the victory with a 21-12, 21-10 win over Adriyanti Firdasari in the second singles match.

Xie was in control from the outset, racing out to a 10-2 lead in the first game en route to winning the match in 42 minutes. A boisterous capacity crowd didn’t distract Xie from the task at hand.

“In my first two matches of the tournament I struggled with the noise from the crowd,” Xie said. “But I learned to cope and have been getting better and better. Today, it all came together.”

The victory was China’s eleventh since 1984. Indonesia is the only other country to win since then, taking the elite women’s tournament in 1994 and 1996.

The final of the men’s Thomas Cup will be played on Sunday with defending champion China taking on South Korea. —AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport