Final fiasco has Sudirman organizers eyeing change
GLASGOW: Changes need to be made to the draw system for the next Sudirman Cup after a major embarrassment on the final day, championship director Anne Smillie has acknowledged.
Spectators and TV stations globally were robbed on Sunday of a much anticipated clash between Chinese world No 1 Lin Dan and Indonesia's Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat.
Smillie said after China had won the cup for the sixth time that an overhaul of the procedure was needed.
"The success of a tournament can't be drawn out of a hat," she said.
Saturday night's draw for the order of play had unfortunately put Lin and Hidayat last of the five matches but such is the dominance of the Chinese the final was always highly unlikely to go to a fifth match.
Sunday's 3-0 scoreline proved the pundits right and meant there was no need to play the women's doubles and the concluding men's singles between Lin and Hidayat.
Smillie defended referee Keith Hawthorne, explaining: "In the latter stages of the tournament the draw is out of a hat for matches one to five and that is what happened.
"And I think that was the view of the referee - that this is what has been in place, which is fair."
When the realisation took hold that Lin and Hidayat would likely be ghosts at the feast officials tried hard on Sunday morning to retrieve the situation.
No agreement
However, no agreement could be reached as China coach Li Yongbo stood firm, later accusing officials of a "casual attitude" over the draw once it had been made.
Smillie accepted: "It would be enormously difficult at the 11th hour to get them to alter their order of play in case it jeopardised the players who were mentally prepared to go on either first, second, third, fourth or fifth."
China's 3-0 victory was a repeat of the scoreline in 2005 when the biennial event was last contested and the sixth triumph for the Chinese in the 10 editions of the event since 1989.
Olympic women's singles champion Zhang Ning sealed the title with a 21-16 21-9 win over world-ranked 44 Adriyanti Firdasari.
Coach Li said: "It is a great victory for China and the three great cups (Thomas, Uber and Sudirman Cups) remain in China."
Sunday's result meant more disappointment for Indonesia.
They were making their seventh appearance in the final but have won only once, in the inaugural event in 1989.
China were playing in the final for the seventh time in succession and rarely put a foot wrong though Li was again critical of Lin when summing up the tournament.
The world number one had not sparkled during the week and Li had considered dropping him for the final - only to re-instate him for the match that never was.
Agencies
(China Daily 06/19/2007 page23)
