Badminton News

SUDIRMAN CUP – China reveals line up (pic)

April 10, 2009

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The deadline for sending the line up to BWF was April 10th and China waited until the last minute to announce the final set of 24 players participating in their home event next month. No major surprise in the 24 names sent, apart from the appearance of Bao Chunlai, who had been said once on the side line because of his knee injury.

His participation in the ongoing Asia Badminton Championships was a sign however that the tall left hander could be part of the team travelling to Guangzhou.

Some names are missing, however : Jiang Yanjiao, who has been performing well lately, is ranked number 4 in China and hence does not make the cut. Zhu Lin, world Champion, is once again left on the Bench – a position she had experienced already during the Olympics, but her recent poor performances on court may have to do with the Chinese official’s decision. More surprisingly, youngsters Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei were not fielded either in the women’s double, in spite of a much better record than the pair of Tian/Pan, which appears in the line up.

A chance was given to Chen Long, the new upcoming star of the Chinese team in the men’s single event (world junior champion in 2007), and Chai Biao.

Here are the names of the full squad

MS : Lin Dan, Chen Jin, Bao Chunlai, Chen Long
WS : Xie Xingfang, Lu Lan, WANG Lin, WANG Yihan
MD : Cai/Fu, Xu/Guo, Shen/Chai
WD : Du/Yu, Zhang/Zhao, Tian/Pan
Mx : He/Yu, Xie/Zhang, Zheng/Ma