DONGGUAN: China’s head coach Li Yongbo lifts the trophy after his team’s victory over Japan in the Sudirman Cup final on Sunday.—AFP

DONGGUAN (China): China won their sixth consecutive Sudirman Cup on Sunday, defeating Japan, which had reached the badminton tournament’s finals for the first time.

The hosts swept Japan 3-0 in a series of tightly contested matches during the final day of the event, with Chinese superstar Lin Dan jumping in the air and pumping his fist after winning his men’s single match against Japan’s Takuma Ueda 21-15, 21-13.

China’s Li Xuerui, the top seeded women’s singles player, exchanged leads with her opponent Akane Yamag­uchi in the first game, but ultimately handed Yamagu­chi a defeat, winning 23-21, 21-14.

China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan also contributed to the nation’s tenth win at the Sudirman Cup, which was first held in 1989, winning 21-17, 20-22, 21-17 in a tight men’s doubles against Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa.

Japan made the finals for the first time after they ous­ted South Korea, winning 2-3, on Saturday.

Japan lost the men’s doubles, but Nozomi Okuhara tur­ned the tide by beating Sung Ji Hyun in the women’s singles.

Japan fell to South Korea in the men’s singles but the score was then evened out by a strong performance by Japan’s women’s doubles duo before their mixed doubles team won the decider.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2015

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