CHINA OPEN: DONG AND GONG TAKE SINGLES CROWNS

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS REPORT is presented by badminton world champions YANG YANG (1987 and 1989) and ZHAO JIAN HUA (1991) and by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS **

November 9, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - China's number one in badminton men's singles, Dong Jiong, and the country's number two in women's singles, Gong Zhichao, today asserted their supremacy over two of their teammates in the finals of the China Open at the Huangpu stadium in Shanghai and took home the championships in their specialities.

Dong, seeded third, beat his seventh-seeded countryman, Luo Yigang 15-10 and 15-2 in the men's singles championship match, while Gong, also a third seed, trounced the fourth-seeded Dai Yun 11-1 and 11-5 in a quickly played final match that took all of 17 minutes.

The left-handed Dai had disposed of China's number one, world champion Ye Zhaoying, in a tough semifinal yesterday 11-8, 3-11 and 11-8, and did not have enough of a game left to match up today with the quick and dynamic playing style of Gong.

In the matchup between Dong and Luo, it was the seventh seed who got off to a good start, racing to a 9-3 lead in the first game. Dong fought back to level the score at 10-all and then zoomed past Luo with five straight points to win the opening set.

In the second, Dong's shotmaking was far superior, often scoring on Luo or forcing an error. The Chinese number one was barely troubled as he limited Luo to only two points in the set.

In the only final that featured a non-Chinese entry, mixed doubles Olympic gold medalist Kim Dong Moon and silver medalist Ra Kyung Min teamed up to prevent a Chinese sweep of the titles and to win their third major Open championship in a row. Kim and Ra, both from Korea, defeated the world champions and top seeds Liu Yong and Ge Fei, 15-10 and 15-6.

Kim and Ra were very sharp and played well together, while the top world pair made far too many mistakes to be able to contend with the in-form Olympic medalists from Korea.

Liu carried his disappointment into the men's doubles championship match. He and partner Zhang Wei, the second seeds, were beaten by their sixth-seeded teammates, Ge Cheng and Tao Xiaoqiang, rather easily 3-15 and 7-15.

In the women's doubles final, world champions Ge Fei and Gu Jun struggled with Qin Yiyuan and Tang Yongshu, the world championships silver medalists. The world champions finally prevailed after 60 minutes of play and won 15-13 amd 15-11.

(sportschina/xinhua/wangc/dsimmons)