China drub Japan, take 13th Uber Cup title

The Chinese badminton team overcame Japan 3-1 to win the World Women's Team Championship and lift the Uber Cup for the 13th time at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here Saturday.

After sharing the first singles and first doubles, the defending champions came back strongly to win the next singles and doubles clashes and seal the tie.

Reigning Olympic champion and World No.1 Li Xuerui set the stage for a rout when she took just 36 minutes to run through Minatsu Mitani 21-15, 21-5 in the first singles.

However, World No.2 doubles pair of Yixin Bao and Jinhua Tang found it difficult to overcome the pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi and eventually lost 18-21, 9-21 in 46 minutes. This was the World No.4 Japanese pair's first win in four meetings.

World No.2 Shixian Wang started from where she left Friday night as she took 45 minutes to win her game against Sayaka Takahashi. Takahashi gave some fight in the first game but lost 18-21. The Chinese girl did not repeat the same mistake in the second game and convincingly won 21-9.

"In the beginning, I was trailing but the margin was not much so it wasn't a problem. I was nervous as it was the final of the Uber Cup. I realized in time and adjusted well and came back strong. I am happy that we defended our title," said the reigning All-England champion.

Finally it was left to the pair of Yunlei Zhao and Xiaoli Wang to wrap up the contest for the defending champions as they did not want it to be stretched to the final match. They obliged by winning their match in 37 minutes with a scoreline of 21-13, 21-6 against World No.5 Miyuki Maeda and Reika Kakiiwa.

While China and Japan took home gold and the silver, respectively, losing semi-finalists India and South Korea were awarded the bronze medal. This is the first ever bronze for the hosts.

Malaysia and Japan play the Thomas Cup final Sunday.