For the fifth consecutive time, China won the Uber Cup final, held in Tokyo on Saturday. In spite of a good fight from their opponents of the day, the Netherlands, the Chinese won 3/0 in the tie.

It was 12 years ago that Zhang Ning and Mia Audina played each other for the first time. It was in the final of the 1994 Uber Cup. At the time, Mia was playing for her native country of Indonesia while Zhang was the upcoming player from China. Mia was then 14 years old and she had won the battle, winning the last match of the tie to get the coveted trophy for her country. Now, dressed in skirts and sleeveless shirts instead of the more traditional all-white outfits, under a new scoring system that had been definitely implemented officially few hours earlier by the IBF general assembly, the two girls were back to play for another final of a Uber Cup.

This time, China was the big favourite, with no match dropped in all ties. But once again, this match between two of the legendary players of this past decade was the most enjoyable, with ups and downs from Zhang Ning under pressure, as only very few shuttlers are able to put her under. A close fight which saw the Chinese come out on top - but barely. Just as during the Olympic Games, where Zhang had beaten Mia in three games, this Uber Cup final first match was to bring the same kind of long rallies. Mia was absolutely incredible when it came to control the shuttle and bring back dead shuttles, while Zhang was as effective as ever with her height and speed.

The first game went to Zhang, 21/18, before Audina enjoyed the better side of the court and took the second 21/19. The last game however saw Zhang get quickly in the lead from a 7-points margin before the girls switched court and Mia started catching back. But the Chinese's margin was so important that the Dutch came close but in vain, finally bowing 18/21. "I think we both played very well today and it was a close match. I may have started coming back too late in the last game when I was back on the good side of the court, but I still enjoyed myself very much. This is probably our last Uber Cup for both of us, so it was nice to meet in the final," Mia said.

Judith Meulendijks was then up against the World champion Xie Xingfang for a match which, on paper, was set to go China's way. And it did but not before the Dutch gave a magnificent fight, losing the first game 21/17 before clearly leading in the second one 14/10 then 16/13. Xie was not so comfortable with her strokes and made quite a number of unforced errors, while the Dutch, who was in good form, relied on a very good back hand, with clears and drops which saved her some time and energy, even scoring on a few back hand smash - not too common in the world of women's badminton.

Yet the Chinese got her game back together and sealed the match 21/18 to give China a good option for the final win, with her younger team mate Jiang Yanjiao up next. "I was confident that I could deliver another point for my team after Zhang had given us the first point even if Judith played well today," said Xingfang.

Jiang was up against Rachel Van Cutsen, one of the new comers from the Netherlands but the latter was not able to pull the same trick as Denmark's Persson the previous evening against Kuan Beng Hong. In two games and a severe but logical 21/ 9 - 21/7, Jiang raised her arms up in the air, with a clear sense of joy in her eyes, but a lot less excitement as other teamss victories this past week, as China knew there was little chance they could be beaten. There was a bit more excitement when they took turn in sending their friends to take photos of the whole team holding the Trophy few minutes later, after Li Yongbo, Zhang Ning and the final winner Jiang were interviewed by international and local TV on court.

"We proved today that we are still on top, thanks to the fighting spirit of the girls. We thank the spectators for their support and we are still not quite done with this Thomas and Uber Cup trip. The boys will probably not want to be left out and will want to bring back the Cup tomorrow. But for the women's team, we have proven that we could win the title five times in a row and are looking forward to winning many more," said Li Yongbo.

The Chinese head coach however came up with a least expected comment for the future. "We think that IBF should allow us to have two teams participating in the Uber Cup next time. We still have girls back home, who are great players and could give the spectators a great show of badminton. I think IBF should consider my request. After all, any team who has won five times, should have a right to field two teams," said Li.

On his side, Martijn Van Dooremalen was still very satisfied with his team's performance. "As I said before, reaching the final for us was unexpected and it's already a great achievement. But we have to say that China was stronger today, even if our girls did really well," said the Dutch team manager.

Sunday's final of the Thomas Cup will feature another Europe vs Asia fight - more balanced on paper, between China and Denmark.