Chinese shuttler's loss to unranked rival raises eyebrows

Chinese badminton is once again coming under fire after world No 3 Du Pengyu's shock loss to unranked Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka at the Indonesia Super Series event.

The sport's governing body, the Badminton World Federation (BWF), has long been concerned about players withdrawing from smaller events and teammates pulling out of matches to avoid competing against each other.

The issue blew up at last year's London Olympics when four women's doubles pairs from China, South Korea and Indonesia deliberately played to lose their matches in order to get a more favourable draw.

The BWF disqualified all four pairings and banned them after the farcical scenes sullied the sport's reputation.

In Jakarta, Du lost 21-15 15-21 21-9 to home favourite Rumbaka to leave China, the dominant force in world badminton and the winner of all five gold medals in London, without a player in the men's singles or doubles.

While Du credited the impressive play of Rumbaka for the surprise defeat, more sceptical observers said Chinese shuttlers saved themselves for bigger events and did not take the smaller tournaments, such as the US$700,000 Indonesian event, seriously.