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Badminton: China Outclass Indonesia to Win Thomas Cup
Frankie Taggart | May 16, 2010

China China's pair of Fu Haifeng, right, and Cai Yun celebrate their victory over Indonesia's Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in the finals round of the Thomas Cup badminton championships in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)
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Kuala Lumpur.  A rampant China underlined their dominance of world badminton Sunday by pounding Indonesia 3-0 to emphatically win a fourth consecutive Thomas Cup title.

The victory cemented China’s reputation as a leviathan in the sport after their women were shocked by an unfancied South Korea on Saturday, and boosted morale in the camp ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October.

The Chinese men were hot favourites, boasting two of the world’s top three singles players, and they did not disappoint.

Temperamental talisman Lin Dan, who handed a demoralising defeat to Malaysia’s world number one Lee Chong Wei in Friday’s semi-final, led the charge with a stunning win — and then called for an upgrade to first class on the short flight home.

It ought not to have been so easy against Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat, also an Olympic and world gold medallist, and a player who can beat anyone on his day.

But Lin blasted his way to a 21-7 win in the first game, before securing the second 21-14.

“We both tried our best to win for our country,” Lin said. “We played out our responsibility to ourselves, to our country and to our supporters.”

Lin, who has been on top form in Kuala Lumpur, dismissed suggestions that he was a league above his opponents, saying: “Beating them is not that easy because I sweat a lot.

“Tonight we are going back to China and I’m very tired now, so hopefully tonight I can change from economy to first class.”

The world number eight pairing of Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng then put China firmly in control of the final, beating the much-admired Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in a three-game thriller.

Fu said after the hard-fought 25-23, 16-21, 21-12 win: “At the end of the first set it became a mental battle. We had to prepare really well to win this match.”

It was then for makeshift Indonesian number two Simon Santoso to prevent a whitewash but his best badminton of the tournament wasn’t enough and he lost a titanic struggle to world number three Chen Jin 19-21, 21-17, 21-7, handing China the cup.

Agence France-Presse