SERIOUS?: China players Yu Yang (left) and Wang Xiaoli (right) return the shuttlecock against Ma Jin and Tang Jinhua from China at Senayan sport center during the Indonesian Open Super Series semi-finals at Senayan sport centre in Jakarta. — AFP photo
JAKARTA: Chinese badminton is once again coming under fire after world number three Du Pengyu’s shock loss to unranked Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka at the Indonesia Super Series event.
The sport’s governing, the Badminton World Federation, has long been concerned about players withdrawing from ‘smaller’ events and team mates pulling out of matches to avoid competing against each other.
The issue blew up at last year’s London Olympics when four women’s doubles pairs from China, South Korea and Indonesia deliberately played to lose their matches in order to get a more favourable draw. The BWF disqualified all four pairings and banned them after the farcical scenes sullied the sport’s reputation and sent shockwaves through the Olympic tournament.
In Jakarta, Du lost 21-15 15-21 21-9 to home favourite Rumbaka to leave China, the dominant force in world badminton and the winner of all five gold medals in London, without a player in the men’s singles or doubles.
While Du credited the impressive play of Rumbaka for the surprise defeat, more sceptical observers said Chinese shuttlers save themselves for bigger events and do not take the smaller tournaments, like the 700,000 Indonesian event, seriously.
“I don’t want to take any credit away from Hayom but Pengyu hardly gave a fight in the rubber game,” Malaysia coach Rashid Sidek was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Star.
“Pengyu is the top seed in the Singapore Open next week but I won’t be surprised if he does not live up to the billing. — Reuters