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| August 24, 2002 | Saturday | Jamadi-us-Saani 14, 1423 |
Chinese shuttlers dominate
SINGAPORE, Aug 23: China dominated the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open badminton tournament here Friday, winning all the women’s singles and two of the four men’s matches, but the overwhelming performance was not enough to satisfy coach Li Yong Bo.
“As I had said before the tournament, we are here to prepare for the Busan Asian Games. The players have done well but there is still a lot of room for improvement,” Li said.
“We are going to go all out for both the men’s and women’s singles titles on Sunday.”
Although victory in the women’s singles is assured with only Chinese players remaining, it is not clear cut in the men’s section where the two remaining Chinese, top seed Xia Xuanze and current All England champion Chen Hong, are drawn against each other.
Li was critical of both men who dropped their opening games in the quarterfinals before making it through to the last four.
Xia defeated Malaysia’s Ong Ewe Hock 12-15, 15-7, 15-12 and Chen ousted another Malaysian, James Chua 7-15, 15-6, 15-12.
“The men’s players need to show more discipline in their attack. We have been speaking during training about choosing the right time to attack and today too many points were wasted going for the wrong attack,” Li said.
In the other men’s quarterfinals, Singapore giant killer Ronald Susilo continued his meteoric performance by ousting Korean seventh seed Shon Seung-Mo 12-15, 15-12, 15-1, while Malaysian second seed Wong Choong Hann defeated China’s Bao Chunlai 15-13, 15-5.
Among the women, it was a one-sided affair in three of the quarterfinals. Only number two seed Zhou Mi of China was made to struggle by Mia Audina Tjiptawan of the Netherlands before winning 11-9, 11-9.
Defending champion Zhang Ning completely dominated compatriot Hu Ting on the way to her 11-2, 11-1 victory to set up a semifinal clash with Xie Xingfang, who beat fellow Chinese Dai Yun 11-3, 11-9.
In the other quarterfinal match, Gong Ruina packed too much power for Hong Kong’s Wang Chen to handle, winning 11-6, 11-4.
Quarterfinal results:
Men
1-Xia Xuanze (China) beat 9-Ong Ewe Hock (Malaysia) 12-15 15-7 15-12; 2-Wong Choong Hann (Malaysia) beat 5-Bao Chunlai (China) 15-13 15-5; Chen Hong (China) beat 15-James Chua (Malaysia) 7-15 15-6 15-12 Ronald Susilo (Singapore) beat 7-Shon Seung Mo (South Korea) 12-15 15-12 15-1
Women
2-Zhou Mi (China) beat 5-Mia Audina Tjiptawan (Netherlands) 11-9 11-9; 4-Zhang Ning (China) beat Hu Ting (China) 11-2 11-1; 8-Gong Ruina (China) beat 3-Wang Chen (Hong Kong) 11-6 11-4; Xie Xingfang (China) beat 6-Dai Yun (China) 11-3 11-9—Reuters
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