BIRMINGHAM, England, 3 August 2003 — Gong Ruina took another step toward retaining her women’s world badminton singles title when she reached the final with an easy win over her fellow Chinese player Zhou Mi.
The world champion beat the All-England champion 11-2, 11-4 in a repeat of the 2001 final in Seville with surprisingly little resistance coming from the silver medalist of last time.
Zhou was outplayed by the accurate and well-disguised clears and drops of Gong in the first game, although she offered more resistance in the middle of the second.
Service changed hands several times at 7-3 when Zhou played some deft net shots and began to cover the court a bit harder.
But once Gong got the score moving again the match was soon over. It lasted little more than half an hour.
Gong should be fresh for the final stage of the title defense tomorrow, although some believe this could be the year for her other compatriot, Zhang Ning, the second seed.
With Zhang having ended the challenge of Camilla Martin, the former world champion from Denmark, on Friday, the Chinese grip on the women’s singles title has tightened further.
Later Gao Ling’s bid to win two titles for a second successive world championships carried her to another final after she and Zhang Jun won their mixed doubles.
The Chinese top seeds beat Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen, the fourth seeds from Denmark, in straight games but there were moments in the second game when it seemed the champions might run into trouble.
Rasmussen and Olsen held a game point at 14-11 to take the semifinal the full distance, before Zhang and Gao took four points in a row and squeezed home 15-3, 17-15 in an entertaining 53-minute battle.
They are likely to have an even tougher tussle in the final where the holders will meet the former world champions, Kim Dong-Moon and Ra Kyung-Min.
The South Koreans outplayed Chen Qiqiu and Zhao Tingting, the All-England runners-up from China 15-7,15-5.
Korean Mo Slumps to Semifinal Defeat
Giant-killing South Korean Shon Seung-mo was brought down to earth with a bump when he lost 15-4, 15-5 to Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia in the semifinals.
Looking jaded after Friday’s epic quarterfinal victory over men’s top seed and world number one Chen Hong, Shon tamely bowed out to the ninth seed Wong.
In Friday’s encounter with Chen, 13th seed Shon had saved a match point in the second set before battling through to a three-set triumph in an 85-minute roller-coaster of a match which ended at 11.00 p.m. local time. A little over 12 hours later the Korean was back at the National Indoor Arena but there was to be no repeat, Wong sweeping into Sunday’s final in 47 minutes.
He now meets either Chinese fifth seed Xia Xuanze or Xia’s unseeded compatriot Bao Chunlai.
