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Sony, Kido/Hendra win China Masters
Indonesia brought home two titles from the US$200,000 China Masters badminton tournament, with ace Sony Dwi Kuncoro and men's doubles duo Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan thrashing their opponents during Sunday's finals
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Indonesia brought home two titles from the US$200,000 China Masters badminton tournament, with ace Sony Dwi Kuncoro and men's doubles duo Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan thrashing their opponents during Sunday's finals.
World No. 6 Sony humbled China's Chen Jin (ranked 4) before Chen's hometown fans at the Changzhou Olympic Sports Center with a convincing a 21-19, 21-18 win.
The title was Sony's third in a major tournament this year after last week's Japan Open and the Indonesia Open in June.
The back-to-back titles seem to prove the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist and 2007 world championship runner-up has regained his confidence after a quarterfinal rout in the Beijing Olympic Games last month.
However, big names were missing from the China tournament, including world champion and Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan of China, world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and evergreen world No. 9 Peter Gade of Denmark.
In men's singles, world No. 1 pair Kido and Hendra only needed 31 minutes to outshine home shuttlers Junjie Sun and Chen Xu 21-17, 24-22, capturing their third major title this year.
The 2007 world champions struck gold in the Olympic Games last month and in the Malaysia Open in January.
"The Chinese pair played very well in the second game. We have to be more careful next time if we play them again," Kido said, as quoted by Antara news agency.
Kido and Hendra have set their sights on completing their title collection with an All England title.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's mixed doubles duo Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir once again let their title slip after succumbing 21-17, 21-17 to Chinese pair Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen, ranked third in the world.
The world No. 1, who won back-to-back world championships in 2006 and 2007, also flopped in the Japan Open finals last week and finished as runners-up.
"They played better today. They had a lot of good shots we found hard to return," Nova said.
Despite the loss, the Indonesian pair still takes a 6-2 lead over the Chinese duo in their international meetings.
Aside from a runner-up finish in the Japan Open, Nova and Lilyana -- who won Singapore Open titles this year -- came second in the All England, Asia Badminton Championship and the Olympic Games.
The women's doubles title went to Chinese duo Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei, who captured their second title in a row after beating pair Zhang Dan and Zhang Zhibo of Macau 21-14, 21-11. The Chinese winners won the Japan Open last week.
World No. 9 old hand Zhou Mi of Hong Kong grabbed the women's singles title after defeating home shuttler Wang Lin 21-19, 19-21, 21-16 in Sunday's final. Zhou improved her showing after losing her Japan Open finals last week. Indonesia did not field any shuttler in the women's singles event.
