Denmark expected to beat England in Thomas Cup

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta

European badminton giant Denmark is upbeat about its encounter with England at the Bung Karno Indoor Stadium in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on the initial day of the Thomas Cup championship on Friday.

Denmark has not won a singles title in the Thomas Cup since the event was first staged in 1949, but managed to reach the final a total of six times.

Relying on its European champions Jens Erikssen and Martin Lundgaard Hansen and the pairing of Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen, Denmark is aiming to secure two points.

The world number six singles, Peter Gade Christensen, had said earlier that he was very eager to win the cup.

"We have a better chance of winning the Cup compared to two years ago in Guang Zhou," he said, adding that it was time for a European country to bring home the cup.

Christensen will face England's first singles Andrew South, ranked 67th in the world. However, he refused to venture a guess as to England's chances against Denmark, saying that the Thomas Cup had always been full of surprises.

England team coach Rexy Mainaky, Indonesia's 1996 Olympics gold medalist with then partner Ricky Subagja, was pessimistic about his team's chances against Denmark.

"Denmark is definitely stronger than we are. Their players are very experienced while our players are relative newcomers. Our chances of winning the game are only 5 percent. We have previously met Denmark several times and never won against them."

"We still have some hope for our doubles although the Danish pairs are very strong," Rexy said.

English's top pairing of Clark Anthony and Nathan Robertson is ranked 11th in the world.

Another match will feature Malaysia against newcomer, the Republic of South Africa, which benefited from the International Badminton Federation (IBF)'s new rules establishing a number of zones so as to enable more countries to qualify for the championships.

South African team coach Morten Frost Hansen, a former Denmark top player, told The Jakarta Post that his team would definitely not win against Malaysia.

"There's no chance we can win against them. I think it'll be 5-0," he said.

He did not set a specific target for his team, saying that his players' were young -- ranging from 17 to 21 years old -- and lacked inexperience.

Another newcomer, New Zealand, will challenge South Korea.

New Zealand team manager Grant Stone told the Post that it would be "almost impossible" to beat South Korea.

"We can only expect a victory against Germany and finish second in our group. We hope to meet the U.S. in the playoff. I am confident that we can beat them," he said.

China, which aims to bring home the Thomas Cup, will play against the U.S., which reached the Thomas Cup finals in 1952 before bowing out to Malaya (now Malaysia).

U.S. team coach Tony Gunawan, Indonesia's 2000 Olympics gold medalist with Candra Wijaya, said his team had no chance against China.

"We'll definitely go down to China. If we take one game from them, it'll be very good. If we can take two, it'll be a miracle," he said.