Ji Xinpeng, Candra and Sigit out<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (Agencies): Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng of China was
\nsent crashing out of the World Badminton Championships in
\nSeville, Spain, on Wednesday losing in a stunning upset to
\nunknown Hong Kong player Agus Hariyanto.<\/p>\n
Ji, seeded 11 for the tournament, was beaten 12-15, 15-11, 15-
\n4 by Indonesian-born Agus in an early second-round singles match
\nthat also saw wins for India's Pullela Gopichand and Denmark's
\nPeter Gade Christensen.<\/p>\n
All England champion and sixth seed Gopichand battled through
\na testing tussle with Kevin Han of the U.S., finally winning 15-
\n6, 11-15, 15-7.<\/p>\n
World number two Gade Christensen had an easier time, breezing
\npast Sweden's Martin Hagberg 15-7, 15-1 in an all-Scandinavian
\ntie.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's best hope men's doubles Candra Wijaya and Sigit
\nBudiarto, the 1997 winner, had to bow out to South Koreans Kim
\nDong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon 15-9, 15-12 in a tough 40-minute match.<\/p>\n
Their defeat leaves the country's hope to bring home a title
\nin the men's doubles on All England winners Tony Gunawan and
\nHalim Heryanto, who beat Japanese Yuzo Kubota and Takuya Katayama
\n15-3, 15-4 Tuesday. The other pair of Flandy and Eng Hian had
\nsuccumbed to arch-rivals Pramote Teerawiwatana and Tesana
\nPanvisvas of Thailand 15-11, 15-1.<\/p>\n
But it was Agus's remarkable upset of Ji that had the San
\nPablo Stadium abuzz on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Ji never got going against the Hong Kong player, who caused
\nthe Sydney Olympic singles gold medalist no end of problems with
\nsome clever variation and teasing drop shots.<\/p>\n
The win is the biggest of Agus's career, and the world number
\n25-ranked Hong Kong player leapt for joy on achieving the win.<\/p>\n
"I can't believe it. I knew I had a chance, this is the best
\nthing that has ever happened to me in badminton," Agus told AFP,
\nwho looked almost as shell-shocked as Ji after the victory.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old player moved to Hong Kong four years ago with
\nhis family from Indonesia and has represented the former British
\ncolony for the past two years.<\/p>\n
Chinese head coach Li Yongbo warned Ji that he might lose his
\nplace in the natioanl team if he could not find back his form
\nsoon enough.<\/p>\n
"To tell you the truth, I am not satisfied with his
\nperformance today," Li said, as quoted by Xinhua. "I think two
\nreasons have resulted in his defeat. The first is that he was not
\nmentally tough. He did not have the strong desire to win. You
\ncould see his pace was too slow.<\/p>\n
"The second one is that he must have belittled the rival. He
\nmust be thinking that he could win the match trailing by a big
\nmargin. He failed to notice it had been too late."<\/p>\n
Hong Kong coach Chan Chi-choi, who coaches Agus at the Hong
\nKong Sports Institute, was beaming with pride after watching the
\nplayer torment Ji into defeat.<\/p>\n
"We knew we had a chance before the match," Chan said. "It was
\nalways going to be tough but we have seen that Ji does not play
\nas well when he is under pressure.<\/p>\n
Agus will play seventh-seeded Indonesian Marlev Mainaky in the
\nthird round. Marlev defeated Thailand's Boonsak Polsana 15-8, 10-
\n15, 15-11 to advance to Thursday's matches.<\/p>\n
In the mixed doubles, Bambang Kusprianto and Minarti Timur
\nbeat Chen Qiqiu and Chen Lin 15-12, 15-9 to meet Kim Dong-moon
\nand Ra Kyung-min of South Korea. The Koreans defeated German pair
\nBjorn Siegemund and Nicole Pitro 15-6, 15-7.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Nova and Vita defeated Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Yu-mi
\nalso of South Korea 15-8, 15-8. The Indonesian pair will
\nchallenge Chinese Zhang Jun and Gao Ling who beat Daniel Shirley
\nand Sara Runesten-Petersen of New Zealand 15-13, 15-5. (nvn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ji-xinpeng-candra-and-sigit-out-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}