Tine takes on the Chinese in All England badminton

Tine Baun, the only woman to have denied China an All-England Open singles title in the last ten years, has special reasons for wanting the chance to try again when the world's oldest tournament gets underway here on Wednesday. The twice former champion from Denmark was unable to make a title defence last year because of a heel injury, and believes her special affinity with the century-old tournament she calls her second home offers hopes of defying the sport's greatest nation again. Baun, formerly Rasmussen, also wants to do well because at the age of 32 this could be her last All-England Open. She expects to retire not long after the Olympic Games in August and says: "I could do one more All-England, but not two." Despite another injury-affected season, Baun did enough at the Hong Kong Open in November to suggest her formidable smash and phases of inspirational attack can, when combined with triumphant memories, still make an impact. There she beat Wang Shixian, the reigning All-England champion, before losing the final to Wang Xin, the Asian Games champion. Here in Birmingham, as the fifth seed she will draw hope from those matches, and from the ambience she loves. "I feel that when I play, I play good matches," Baun said. "I've been struggling with the right hip, but it's getting better. And I feel that the spectators get behind me at All-England. This is a very special tournament for me." Her main obstacles will be the trio of outstanding Wangs - Wang Yihan, the world champion, Wang Shixian, the All-England champion, and Wang Xin, the winner of several Super Series titles since last year. The most dangerous is probably Wang Yihan, who won the 2009 All-England and this year's Malaysia Super Series, and is popular with European audiences both for her ability to impose a creative game and an evident range of emotions. She should meet Baun again in the quarter-finals, and is favourite to regain the title. However the Dane may take comfort from having beaten her in a thrilling final two years ago, the last time either competed at the All-England. By contrast Wang Shixian, the titleholder, is more of a running player, with consistency, good speed and excellent movement, all of which helped her win the Korea Super Series in Seoul two months ago. And Wang Xin, the second seed, is a versatile player who attacks and defends well. However she has a possible semi-final against Saina Nehwal, the very able Commonwealth champion from India, who is probably due to make a mark in Birmingham. Intelligent, well-ordered, and tactically astute, Nehwal has as one of her career ambitions to deny the brilliant Chinese a monopoly. Five of the eight women's singles seeds this week are from the world's most powerful badminton nation. China is also very strong in all the other events, topping the seeding list in three of them. Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng head the men's doubles, Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli the women's doubles, and Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei the mixed doubles. Only in men's singles does another nation top the list - Malaysia, in the person of Lee Chong Wei, the defending All-England champion. However China's Olympic champion Lin Dan narrowly beat Lee in the final of the world championships at Wembley in August, suggesting that China could repeat its unique 2009 All-England achievement of a clean sweep of all five titles. Women's singles seeds: 1. Wang Yihan (CHN); 2. Wang Xin (CHN); 3. Wang Shixian (CHN); 4. Saina Nehwal (IND); 5. Tine Baun (DEN); 6. Jiang Yanjiao (CHN); 7. Li Xuerui (CHN); 8. Juliane Schenk (GER). Men's singles seeds: 1. Lee Chong Wei (MAS); 2. Lin Dan (CHN); 3. Chen Long (CHN) 4. Peter Gade (DEN); 5. Chen Jin (CHN); 6. Sho Sasaki (JPN); 7. Kenichi Tago (JPN); 8. Lee Hyun Il (KOR)