Badminton: Powerful Chinese eye Thomas, Uber Cup glory
AFP - Saturday, May 8.KUALA LUMPUR, May 8, 2010 (AFP) – Badminton powerhouse China, featuring Olympic champion Lin Dan and women's world number one Wang Yihan, are confident of keeping their stranglehold on the world team championships starting Sunday.
The dominant Chinese have won the past three editions of the Thomas Cup, for men, and six consecutive Uber Cups, for women, and head coach Li Yongbo is confident of further success in Kuala Lumpur.
"We came here prepared to retain both cups and that is just what we intend to do," said the former world and Olympic champion ahead of the start of eight days of competition in the Malaysian capital's Putra Stadium.
China, boasting world and Olympic champion Lin Dan, and former world number ones Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in the doubles, are hotly tipped to make it four titles in a row in the men's competition, held every two years.
But Indonesian ace Taufik Hidayat believes the 13-times champions have an even chance of regaining the trophy they last lifted in 2002 when they beat Malaysia in the final in Guangzhou, China.
"I will give China the vote as 51-49 favourites to retain the title," said the top-ranked Indonesian singles player, currently fifth in the world.
"But I expect it to be one of the most closely fought Thomas Cup finals from the knockout stages."
US coach, China-born Cai Zimin, has written off his team's chances after being drawn with both the defending champions and the hosts in Group A.
"Both China and Malaysia are strong teams," said Cai. "They have world-class players and there is no way we can beat them in the group stages. This effectively shuts out our hopes of making the quarter-finals."
The powerful Chinese women include world top two Wang Yihan and Wang Xin but they are unlikely to have it all their own way in their bid for the biennial Uber Cup, with three-times champions Indonesia gunning for a repeat final clash.
Indonesia's Uber Cup team manager Djendjen said his side were "a good bet for the final" although he admitted China would be strong favourites.
"Our target is to reach the final. There should not be any obstacles in topping our group to advance to the quarter-finals," said Djendjen.
The once-mighty Indonesia, who are in Group B with Denmark and Australia, lost 0-3 to China in front of their home fans in Jakarta in 2008, having last won in 1996 in Hong Kong.
"We have a young team without any big names. But we have a set of players who are capable of regaining our past glory," added Djendjen.
China's Li said his players have been told not to do any sightseeing after two Malaysia coaches were treated for swine flu and subsequently given a clean bill of health.
"The players will been told to stay in their rooms. They are allowed to go only to the training venue and to the Putra Stadium."