WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: CHINESE DOMINATE WOMEN'S SINGLES

**This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS and their Southern U.S.A. agents, SPORTSNET INTERNATIONAL (Email:jumpsmash@aol.com /Tel:713-771-8905/Fax:713-771-4446)**

May 29, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Six Chinese women's singles players won their round-of-16 matches today at the badminton world championships in Glasgow, Scotland to emphasize China's dominance in this event. Indonesians Susi Susanti and Mia Audina took the other two round-of-16 matches.

Top seed Ye Zhaoying of China, the defending champion, thrashed the sixteenth seed from Indonesia, Cindana Hartono, 11-4 and 11-1. Second seed Gong Zhichao, also from China, eliminated Kim Ji Hyun of Korea 11-4 and 11-6.

Other Chinese winners were:

Sixth seed Wang Chen who struggled in the first game against eleventh seed Lee Joo Hyun of Korea before getting into high gear and winning 7-11, 11-1 and 11-3,

Seventh seed Zhang Ning who beat Huang Chia-chi of Taiwan 11-5 and 11-1,

Tenth seed Han Jingna, the 1995 world championships silver medalist, who upset the fourth seed Camilla Martin of Denmark 3-11, 11-7 and 11-7,

Fifteenth seed Dai Yun who upended the eighth-seeded Ra Kyung Min of Korea 11-6 and 11-5.

The third-seeded Mia Audina of Indonesia defeated the thirteenth-seeded Yao Yan of China (score unconfirmed).

Susi Susanti, seeded fifth, was in a precarious position against the twelfth seed, Zeng Yaqiong of China, but managed to pull out the victory. Susanti was thrashed in the first game 3-11 and was behind in the second before she found her game and edged past Zeng 12-9. In the third, Susanti was the easy winner 11-3.

Only Audina and Susanti stand in the way of an unprecedented Chinese sweep of the women's singles medals.

(migrossman)