China Seals One Title at All England Championships

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, March 09, 2002

China Seals One Title at All England Championships

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Chinese players proved unstoppable in the All England Badminton Championships here on Friday as they made a clean sweep of top four places in the women' s doubles and reserved three out of four semifinal berths in both two singles events.

Gao Ling/Huang Sui took another step towards retaining their women's doubles champion by breezing past Helene Kirkegaard of Denmark and Anastasia Russkikh of Russia 7-1, 7-5, 7-3.

They will vie for the final place with compatriots Huang Nanyan/ Yang Wei, a 7-2, 7-2, 8-6 winning pair over South Korea's Lee Kyung-Won/Ra Kyung-Min.

The other all-Chinese clash will be played between Zhang Yawen/ Zhao Tingting and second seed Zhang Jiewen/Wei Yili, who eliminated English pairs Ella Miles/Sara Sankey 7-0, 4-7, 7-3, 7-0 and Katy Rydon/Natalie Munt 7-1, 7-2, 7-4 respectively.

In the men's quarterfinals, fourth seed Lin Dan emerged as China's hero as he fought back from one game down to beat Shon Seung-Mo of South Korea 4-7, 7-4, 8-6, 7-2, making the men's singles final one step away from an all Chinese affair. The other two quarterfinal matches were all played between Chinese men, with Bao Chunlai defeating Chen Yu and last year's beaten finalist seeing off quarlifier Luo Yigang.

Lin, 20, making his first appearance at the All England Championships, will next take on Indonesia's Budi Sangtoso, who advanced to the semifinals by beating Agus Hariyonto of Hong Kong, China 7-3, 7-2, 7-1.

Luo and Chen will clash for the other final berth.

Former world champion Camilla Martin stopped China from controlling the women's singles competition as the fifth seed stunned second seed Zhang Ning of China 7-5, 1-7, 7-4, 7-2. But she has to face another Chinese hurdle in the semifinals, playing seventh seed Dai Yun, a 7-2, 7-3, 7-4 winner over fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong, China.

Top seed Zhou Mi routed South Korea's Kim Kyeung-ran 7-1, 4-7, 7-0, 7-0 to set up a showdown with teammate Gong Ruina, who eliminated another Chinese player Xie Xingfang 7-3, 7-3, 7-2.

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