Denmark to face China in Thomas Cup final match

Denmark to face China in Thomas Cup final match

Eva Komandjaja and Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's Thomas Cup team suffered a devastating loss on its
home soil as it failed to advance to the final after being
stopped by Denmark 2-3 in the semifinals here on Friday.

Peter Rasmussen decided the Danes' victory, which was their
first in 12 matchups between the two teams, posting a 15-3, 15-13
win over young Indonesian Simon Santoso.

As Simon's return flopped onto the net, the Denmark team could
not contain their joy and hugged each other on court, while the
home fans, who packed the 10,000-capacity Bung Karno Indoor
Stadium, fell silent in dejection.

Denmark will face China in the final on Sunday. China took its
ticket with an easy 3-0 win over South Korea.

After a lopsided matchup between China and Korea earlier in
the day, Indonesia and Denmark provided a tight rivalry.

Indonesia jumped to the lead twice but Denmark, whose female
team was stopped by Korea in the semifinals on Thursday, managed
to equal the score each time.

Sony Dwi Kuncoro put Indonesia in front with a 15-4, 15-8 win
over Peter Gade amid strong support from the home crowd.

The world No. 6 Gade seemed hapless against the younger, world
No. 9 Sony, who pushed his opponent to every corner with his
accurate placement and tricky set-ups.

Gade took the first point and led 2-1 but Sony was unstoppable
and raced to a 11-2 lead.

Gade took another two points before Sony halted him to win the
opening game.

Gade, who inspired the Danish team to win the European
championship title in April, built an initial 3-0 lead,
capitalizing on a slipup in the defense by Sony. But the
Indonesian steadied his pace to make it a tightly fought game.

Both players twice broke level at 4-4 and 8-8, before Sony
marched through to victory after an hour-long match.

The victory also gave Sony a 2-1 lead in their head-to-head
matches.

The Danes were back in contention after world champions Lars
Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen defeated Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian
15-13 and 15-7.

Flandy and Eng Hian took to the court confident of extending
their winning streak over the Danes after winning all three of
their previous matches.

However, they found the Danish pair distinctly solid this time
around. The home pair were tough to beat in the first game. They
even had an opportunity to snatch the opener when they took over
the lead 12-11 only to let it melt down toward the end.

The Indonesians seemed to run out of offensive resources when
they fell 5-0 behind. The Danes continued their rampage to pull
to a 12-1 lead. Flandy and Eng Hian tried to fight back. They
managed to add more points but the point margin was too wide for
them to overhaul.

Flandy and Eng Hian were the best option as the first doubles
pair, as Alven Yulianto and Luluk Hadiyanto were the weaker side
against Paaske and Rasmussen based on their head-to-head record.

Taufik Hidayat, currently ranked No. 17 in the world, had to
battle hard before subduing Kenneth Jonassen to put Indonesia
back in the lead.

Taufik did not give Jonassen an opportunity to improve his
play as the Indonesian blistered to a 9-0 lead. He kept his
opponent under control in the rest of the game to seal the opener
15-5.

It looked as if Taufik would have needed just two games to
scrape in as winner when he jumped to 5-0. At 7-3, Taufik sent
Jonassen sliding across the court to return the shuttlecock to no
avail, making it 8-3 for the home hero.

The Dane, however, refused to sit back. At 14-13 for Jonassen,
Taufik's smash crashed onto the net while the Dane was kneeling
on the court.

Taufik regained composure with wild smashes and cunning flicks
over the net to win the decider 15-7.

The makeshift pair of Candra Wijaya and Tri Kusharjanto failed
to wrap up Indonesia's victory after they were beaten 15-10, 2-
15, 15-4, which swung the encounter to a decider and eventual
victory for the Danes.