The Hindu : Martin, Xuanze triumph

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 07, 2003

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Martin, Xuanze triumph

Xia Xuanze bites into the gold medal during the awards ceremony for the men's singles event. — AP

TOKYO April 6. Camilla Martin swept aside China's Xie Xingfang 11-1, 11-5 to win her first Japan Open badminton women's singles title on Sunday.

The world No. 7 from Denmark, who had earlier eliminated the world No. 1 Zhang Ning, completed her collection of Chinese scalps with an easy win.

In the all-Chinese men's singles final, the 2000 All England champion Xia Xuanze, last year's runner-up here, fended off the challenge from his young teammate with a 15-12, 15-10 win in 50 minutes.

"I've been playing many times and never reached the final before, it's always a very strong tournament, so I'm very happy when I reached the final and then I could win today," said Martin.

"It's not easy to win, because every good player is here and everybody wants to win. In my head, it's ranked very hard to win the Japan Open, it's almost like the World championships.

It was her first title since she won the Denmark Open in October last year, receiving the winner's cheque of $12,420 and stretching her record against Xie to three wins against one defeat.

Denmark's Camilla Martin displays the winner's plate after claiming the women's singles title at the Yonex Japan Open badminton championships in Tokyo on Sunday. — AP

"I was a bit hasty at the end of the match, because I lost the final last year to South Korea's Lee Hyun-Il in five games (seven point system). I'm glad that I won it finally," said Xia, who earned the $14,400 first prize.

"It was tough against Peter (Gade of Denmark) and Taufik Hidayat (of Indonesia), they are great players, but overall it was the toughest to play fellow Chinese players, because we know each other very well".

Xia, having won his first victory since the Asian championships, the China Open and the Grand Prix Final in 2001, will now concentrate on winning the World championships next month at Birmingham.

The results (all finals):

Men's singles: 2-Xia Xuanze (Chn) bt 9-Lin Dan (Chn) 15-12, 15-10.

Women's singles: 8-Camilla Martin (Den) bt 6-Xie Xingfang (Chn) 11-1, 11-5.

Men's doubles: 6-Flandy Limpele & Eng Hian (Eng) bt Cheng Rui & Chen Qiqiu (Chn) 15-5, 15-12.

Women's doubles: 1-Gao Ling & Hwang Sui (Chn) bt 3-Wei Yili & Zhao Tingting (Chn) 10-13, 11-6, 11-5.

Mixed doubles: Zhang Jun & Gao Ling (Chn) bt 1-Jens Eriksen & Mette Schjoldager (Den) 9-11, 11-8, 11-9. — AFP

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