All England a graveyard for RI players

All England a graveyard for RI players

BIRMINGHAM, England (Agencies): All England is fast becoming a
graveyard for the world's best badminton players as none of
Indonesia's most fancied shuttler now surviving in the men's
singles.

A big surprise was reserved for Thursday's quarterfinals when
world champion Hariyanto Arbi, All England winner in 1993 and
1994, found fifth seed Park Sung-woo at the top of his game, the
South Korean winning 18-15, 15-11.

Earlier on the day, Ardy Wiranata, winner in 1992, extended
the list of Indonesian casualties when he went down to defending
champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark 15-1O, 15-5.

Women's singles Susi Susanti and two men's doubles teams saved
for the day for Indonesia with their convincing wins en route to
the semifinals, to be played later on Friday.

Ardy's loss means that his compatriot Alan Budikusuma, who was
also beaten in Thursday's quarterfinals, will defense his Olympic
title in Atlanta next July.

Top seed and former world champion Joko Suprianto led
Indonesia's derailed wagon on the opening day on Wednesday,
losing to little known Chinese Lin Liwen. At about the same time,
former world silver medalist Hermawan Susanto was also beaten.

Indonesia has also already been out of contention for the
women's doubles and mixed doubles titles.

Hariyanto was not at his best and never looked sharp enough to
contain the gifted Park, whose victory reversed the result of the
world championships final ten months ago in Lausanne,
Switzerland.

Park ruptured a tendon at the Indonesian Open last July but
returned to action earlier this year at the Korean Open where his
victims included Hoyer-Larsen.

Park now has a semifinal with Hoyer-Larsen, while the
Commonwealth champion from Malaysia Rashid Sidek, who beat
giantkiller Fung Permadi 15-7, 5-15, 15-6, contests the other
semifinal with another South Korean Lee Kwan-Jin, who beat the
unseeded quarterfinalist Lin Liwen of China 17-16, 15-7.

Second seed Susi ended the night's action with a 12-10, 11-0
victory over China's Hang Jingna to set up a semifinal clash
against arch-rival Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea.

There was nearly another major surprise in the women's singles
when Bang, the third seed who is one of the three front runners
for the title, had to save two match points against Denmark's
Camilla Martin to survive.

Martin, a losing finalist last year, led 1O-7 and 1O-9 in the
final game and covered acres of court in defense, but Bang
averted the first crisis with a tight net shot, and the second
with a beautiful overhead drop to scrape through 7-11, 11-6, 12-
1O.

Later another South Korean Kim Ji-hyun became an unseeded
semifinalist when China's Yao Yan, match point down at 8-1O in
the final game, collapsed in the forehand corner and was unable
to get up, retiring with cramp.

In the semifinals, Kim will meet top seed Ye Zhaoying of China
who beat Dai Yun 11-2, 11-8 in an all-China affair.

There will be an all-Indonesian semifinal in the men's doubles
as top seeds Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky meet with their
juniors Denny Kantono and Antonius Irianto.

Title holders and world champions Ricky and Rexy cruised to
the semifinals after beating Chinese pair of Huang Zhangzhong and
Jiang Xin 15-9, 18-13. Denny and Antonius shot down Peter
Axelsson and Par Gunnar Jonsson of Sweden 15-11, 15-9.

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