China's dominant men's badminton team claimed their first Thomas
Cup title in 12 years with a hard-fought victory over battling
Denmark.
The win wraps up a deserved Thomas and Uber Cup double for the
top-seeded squad, whose women claimed a fourth successive trophy on
Saturday, just three months before the Athens Olympics.
World number one Lin Dan subdued fierce rival Peter Gade in the
evening's bad-tempered opening encounter 15-8, 15-13. The European
champion recovered from a hesitant start to take charge of the
second game but faltered on 13-9 and gifted Lin, whom he has now
failed to beat in their last five meetings, victory with a series
of errors.
A disconsolate Gade then slumped alone at the back of the
stadium while Lin celebrated with his team-mates, ripping off his
shirt and throwing it into the crowd.
The Danes hit back through world champion doubles pair Lars
Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen, who knocked Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng out
of their stride 17-16, 15-6.
The lumbering Kenneth Jonassen came close to making it 2-1 with
a typically determined display against Bao Chunlai. However, the
world number four came back from a game down and 4-10 in the third
game to hand China the advantage.
Sang Yang and Zheng Bo, ranked sixth in the world, then shocked
European champions Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard 15-13, 15-8,
sparking scenes of jubilation in the half-empty Senayan Indoor
Stadium.
"We beat all our opponents to love before the final and we won
the final 3-1, so we deserved to win the Thomas Cup," said a
typically forthright Li Yongbo, China's head coach who was part of
the 1990 winning team.
He also criticised match officials who showed Lin Dan a yellow
card for twice not being ready to take serves from Gade.
"Many players today have shown the umpires that they were not
ready but only Lin Dan was given a yellow card, so that's not very
fair," he said.
Gade said he had been weakened by a stomach upset and rued his
missed chance to take the second set. "I was very tired and my
stomach has not been so good but I fought the best I could," he
said.
"The team is very disappointed of course because we were very
close -- we were almost there."
Danish coach Steen Pedersen said he had expected Eriksen and
Lundgaard to beat Sang and Zheng to take the match into a deciding
singles match.
"I thought we had a good chance of winning the second doubles
because we started very well but it was very difficult for those
two to play with all the pressure on them," he said.
"Jens and Martin have a good record against Sang and Zheng but
the Chinese players did very well and I think we allowed them to
control the game a bit too much."
Doubles star Jonas Rasmussen was also surprised at Eriksen and
Lundgaard's loss.
"After the second singles their spectators were cheering, they
got into a rhythm and I think they capitalized on that in the
second doubles because I thought Jens and Martin would have won
today."
But coach Pedersen said he was pleased with Denmark's
campaign.
"I told the players that of course we were sad right now after
losing a very close match where we were the only team in the
tournament that gave China a run for their money," he added.
"But we can only be sad for a short time because we also have to
be proud of ourselves because we played a really good
tournament."
China's women beat South Korea by the same 3-1 score line in
Saturday's Uber Cup final.
(China Daily May 17, 2004)
