Malaysia Open: Chinese shuttlers capture three titles

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Chinese shuttlers secured three out of the five titles at the 2007 Malaysia Open badminton tournament here on Sunday, winning the women’s singles, women’s doubles and the mixed doubles.

Zhu Lin won a rather easy match against her Malaysian rival, defeating Wong Mew Choo 21-15, 21-12 in 42 minutes in the final at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium Sunday afternoon.

The world number nine advanced single-handedly into the semifinals, as several veteran Chinese female players were absent at the tournament, including world top seed Zhang Ning and world number two Xie Xingfang.

The 22-year-old said she felt "duty-bound to win the battle" and she made it. In the 2005 Malaysia Open, she had to accept the second place in the women’s singles competition.

For the mixed-doubles final, Chinese pairing Gao Ling/Zheng Bo secured the crown after overcoming the 2006 World Championship champions Gail Emms/Nathan Robertson of Britain 21-12, 14-21, 21-15 in 55 minutes.

Gao Ling usually partnered Zhang Jun to form world number two mixed-doubles while Zheng Bo who paired with Zhao Tingting are world number 24. The British combination Emms/Robertson occupies the 7th place in the world ranking.

For the women’s doubles, Chinese players Gao Ling/Huang Sui laughed last.

Despite the 19-21 loss in the first set to Gresya Polii/Vita Marissa of Indonesia, the world number two pairing launched a fierce counterattack in the following sets and overwhelmed their opponents 21-12, 21-11.

When asked on their feelings after winning the match, Huang thanked the Malaysian fans for their warm cheering and generous support, saying that’s why she and her partner enjoy playing games in this country, whose remarks brought another round of cheering and applause from the audience.

For the men’s singles, Chinese shuttler Bao Chunlai, world number six, had to take the silver after losing in the rubber 15-21, 21-17, 14-21 to Denmark’s Peter Gade, world number three.

The Doha Asian Games champion Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia won the men’s doubles title, after beating the American and Indonesian combination, Tony Gunawan/Candra Wijaya, Indonesia, 21-15, 21-18.

The 2007 Malaysia Open is the first of the 12-leg Super Series introduced by the Badminton World Federation this year.

(source: Xinhuanet)

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