KUALA LUMPUR: Defending champions China trounced arch rivals Indonesia 5-0 to top Group A of the Sudirman Cup yesterday, declaring they are ready to face anyone in tomorrow’s quarter-finals.
The Chinese have won the biennial tournament eight times and are chasing their fifth consecutive title.
After yesterday’s matches, Chinese coach Li Yongbo said his team is ready to meet anyone in the quarter-finals.
“Anyone will do. It doesn’t matter. We are ready to face anyone,” the 50-year-old said.
Former champions Indonesia, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, underdogs Taiwan and Thailand have also qualified for the quarter-finals with a last space left for either European champions Germany or hosts Malaysia.
China and Indonesia earlier qualified for the quarter-finals by beating India 5-0 and 4-1 respectively in their group.
The top two teams of each group move on to the quarter-finals.
All group winners of the tournament in Kuala Lumpur, will be seeded when the draw for the quarter-finals takes place after the last matches.
China’s Li also sprung to the defense of Olympic champion Li Xuerui, who surprisingly dropped a game before beating Indonesia’s Aprilia Yuswandari 13-21, 21-4, 21-11.
“She is making her debut in a team event and was a little nervous,” he said.
The badminton player added: “Though she took a little longer to settle down, it was one-way traffic in the next two games after dropping the first.” AFP
