As Zhang Ning delivered a beautiful cross-court net drop, the Chinese badminton team knew it had both hands firmly on the Sudirman Cup for the fifth time, defeating their arch-rivals Indonesia 3-0 in the final in Beijing on Sunday.

With this mixed team world championships title, the star-studded squad also realized its team Grand Slam on home soil.

They had been on track for it after bringing back the Thomas Cup (men's team world title) and the Uber Cup (women's team world title) last year.

Olympic champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling sent China to a 1-0 lead by beating Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir 2-1 in the mixed doubles.

Men's singles world No.1 Lin Dan held his nerve to beat Indonesia's Athens Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat in straight sets before world No.2 and Athens champion Zhang Ning routed Fransisca Ratnasari Haris S in two sets to seal China's victory.

A jubilant Lin told reporters, "Both of us performed well."

He had said before the match that he believed he was able to beat Hidayat: "He said he had the ability to beat any player from other countries. But not China."

As the host and title favorite, China defeated Sweden, Hong Kong and Indonesia in straight sets during the group matches to reach the next round as No.1 in Group 1B.

In the semi-finals, they savored sweet revenge against defending champions South Korea with 3-0, two years after their shock defeat by them at the last Sudirman Cup final in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
 
They continued in another confrontation with Indonesia in the final. Indonesia smashed European champions Denmark 3-0 to reach the final.

"I am all wet with sweat partly because of the high competitiveness of the matches," said China's head coach Li Yongbo. "We are well prepared for every possible difficulty and I am proud that all of my players did a really good job today."

After the national table tennis team swept all five titles in the world championships in Shanghai on May 6 to past the symbolic 100-gold-medal tally, the badminton squad set their sights on similar feats of glory, not withstanding their rather roller-coaster track record.

The team drew a title blank in 1992 in the Olympic Games, the Thomas Cup and also the World Championships, the top three badminton events of the year.

At the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, no Chinese shuttler even reached the final and the women's team lost the Uber Cup to Indonesia - sending the nascent badminton stars crashing ingloriously to earth.
 
But coached by former men's doubles world champion Li Yongbo, the team went back to the starting block. A year later it was back in orbit and took, for first time, the Sudirman Cup. It was the start of their revival on the international stage.

At the Atlanta Olympics the following year, Ge Fei/Gu Jun won China its first Olympic badminton gold medal in the women's doubles.

On a winning streak, in 1997, they took three out of five titles in the tenth world championships in Glasgow. In 1998, the women's team returned to dominate the Uber Cup, which they have held since.

Last year, the men's team clawed their way back to the top of the world by defeating Denmark 3-1 to reclaim the Thomas Cup after 12 years.

Their next stop will be the world championships in August in the US. And given their current form, they are certainly in with more than a chance to take that.

"The victory today brings us more confidence and we know that we have a tougher task in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," Li said.

"That is our paramount target."

(China Daily May 16, 2005)