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.