Boy wonder Taufic struck by self doubt

Boy wonder Taufic struck by self doubt

SYDNEY (Reuters): Indonesian boy wonder Taufik Hidayat overcame an attack of self doubt on Tuesday to hold off unseeded Malaysian Ong Ewe Hock and move into the quarterfinals of the men's badminton singles at the Olympics.

The Chinese had no problems with confidence, with their top men and women stars all cruising through.

But in a sport dominated by Asians, the Danish "golden couple" -- Peter Gade and Camilla Martin, who are engaged to be married -- were on track for a dream finish to their Olympic singles campaigns.

Both insisted however that they were too focused on their own games to think about a double medal.

Top-seeded Taufik stumbled badly in the second game of his match, just as he did in the earlier round against Japan's Hidetaka Yamada.

As Ong charged the net, throwing Taufic off balance, the 19- year-old who is carrying the hopes of a badminton-mad nation, said doubts started creeping in.

He finally pulled himself together, galvanized by raucous Indonesians in the crowd drumming their feet and banging their chairs, and won 15-9, 13-15, 15-3.

"I got rid of all my doubts," he said. "I had to prove to myself and to the world I was the number one seed."

The only member of the Chinese camp who showed any hesitation was coach Li Youngbo.

"I'm basically happy, but not completely. There are still areas in which we can do better," Li said.

But if the Chinese had weaknesses, their opponents did not manage to spot them.

In the women's doubles, top-seeded Gu Jun and Ge Fei demolished their South Korean opponents Yim Kyung-jin and Lee Hyo-jung 15-3, 15-5 to move into the quarterfinals.

Gao Ling and Qin Yiyuan, seeded sixth, got the job done just as easily, sweeping aside Haruko Matsuda and Yoshiko Iwata from Japan 15-5, 15-5.

But the most one-sided contest came when second-seeded Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei took apart the Thai pair Sujitra Eakmongkolpaisarn and Saralee Toongthongkam 15-1, 15-4.

In the women's singles, top seed Gong Zhichao rolled over Japan's Yasuko Mizui 11-6, 11-3 to move into the last four.

One of the biggest shocks of the day came when Martin demolished Mia Audina Tjiptawan of the Netherlands 11-2, 11-1, also to reach the semifinals.

The two are usually quite evenly matched, but Audina Tjiptawan, who has recently had a personal upheaval by marrying and moving from her native Indonesia to the Netherlands, seemed to have other things on her mind.

"She wasn't herself today," said Martin.

"She's a very strong player but she was very nervous today."

Earlier, fiancee Gade blasted Taiwan's Fung Permadi 15-8, 15- 7, surprising because the two have played a number of close matches.

"He's concentrating on his game and I'm concentrating on mine," said Martin in answer to a question over whether the two lovers were aiming for twin gold.

"Maybe we can get some medals -- I hope so."

Britain's last hope in the men's singles, Richard Vaughan, was bundled out by China's Sun Jun 15-10, 15-8.

But in the women's doubles, Joanne Goode and Donna Kellogg, seeded fourth, added to Britain's badminton success story in Sydney by overcoming the Canadian pair Milaine Cloutier and Robbyn Hermitage 15-4, 15-10 to reach the last eight.