Top seed Gong Ruina was upset in the bronze medal match by her
compatriot Zhou Mi, nicknamed "sweety"?on Thursday, who won a
comforting bronze medal 11-2, 8-11, 11-6.
Evidently not recovering from yesterday's defeats, both
shuttlers looked rather subdued during the match, and made lots of
errors.
Zhou, No.3 seed in the badminton tournament, led a quicker
start, controlling the rallies all the way through the first
set.
However, world champion Gong fought was back in the second set
and won 11-8, following a return of serve error from Zhou on set
point.
In the third set, Zhou continued to play positively, eventually
winning the match 11-6, and claimed the bronze medal.
"I really want to cry, not for the victory, but for the loss
yesterday" to Mia Audina, who crushed Gong 11-4, 11-2, dashing the
hope of Chinese shuttlers to pocket all the medals in women's
singles, said bronze medalist Zhou.
?
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)