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Kido, Hendra to final; Maria stopped

For the Chinese, there's no more problem called Maria as defending champion Zhang Ning cleared the way for all-Chinese finals in the women's singles badminton competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Friday

Primastuti Handayani (The Jakarta Post)
Beijing
Sat, August 16, 2008

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Kido, Hendra to final; Maria stopped

F

or the Chinese, there's no more problem called Maria as defending champion Zhang Ning cleared the way for all-Chinese finals in the women's singles badminton competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Friday.

Maria Kristin Yulianti was outclassed by Zhang 21-15, 21-15 in 42 minutes, which handed Zhang a place against world No. 1 Xie Xingfang in the final.

But Indonesia still has cause to celebrate since men's doubles pair Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan ensured their final berth earlier in the day with a 21-19, 21-17 win over the last Europeans standing in the competition, Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen of Denmark.

Maria, whose Herculean run in the competition scalped fourth seed and European favorite Tine Rasmussen of Denmark, failed to reproduce her winning formula against the player she had defeated at their last encounter in June.

Her shots misfired.

"I'm sorry.... I apologize for the defeat," said the 23-year-old after the match. "I rushed to end the game in the last points and it backfired. I lost many points by making unforced errors.

"If only I could have been more patient and kept the ball in play, she might have run into unforced errors herself," she added. "Zhang Ning played better here than she did at the Indonesia Open in June when I beat her."

However, medal hopes for the Indonesian are not quashed yet as Maria, the only non-Chinese and unseeded player in the semifinals, will focus on the bronze medal playoff against third seed Lu Lan, who lost to top seed Xie Xingfang 21-7, 10-21, 12-21 in 57 minutes.

Malaysian star Lee Chong Wei advanced to the men's singles final after fighting off South Korea's Lee Hyun-il 21-18, 13-21, 21-13.

He takes on Lin Dan of China in what will be the final encounter between the world's top two players. Lin beat compatriot Chen Jin 21-12, 21-18.

The hosts already took one gold in the badminton competition with Du Jing and Yu Yang defeating Lee Hyo-jung and Lee Kyung-won of South Korea 21-15, 21-13 in the women's doubles final.

Indonesia's badminton team, which has traditionally contributed a gold to the contingent since 1992, now pins its hopes to maintain the golden run with mixed doubles and men's doubles contests.

Kido and Hendra are now a match away from winning the gold after they won their Friday's match.

"We definitely are happy. We are one step away from the gold. We will play all out in tomorrow's final, whoever our opponents will be," said Kido, who won the crowd's applause with his attractive play.

"We were tense and nervous (against the Danes). That's why we couldn't play our best," Hendra said.

Kido and Hendra stretched their winning streak to 6-4 in their 10 contests.

Both shuttlers acknowledged the burden of being medal hopefuls as the world's No. 1 pair along with compatriots Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir in the mixed doubles.

"We can't run away from our responsibility," Kido said. "We are aware from the outset Indonesia expects a gold from us. We hope we can deliver."

In the final Kido and Hendra will meet second seeds Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China, who ousted South Koreans Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Ji-man 22-20, 21-8.

Indonesia won the men's doubles gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics thanks to Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky and in the 2000 Sydney Olympics thanks to Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan.

"We want that to happen tomorrow ... hopefully. I plead with Indonesians to pray for us," Kido said.

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