Hendrawan reaches final, Gong wins gold

By Primastuti Handayani

SYDNEY (JP): Indonesian badminton men's singles player Hendrawan moved a step closer to claiming the Olympic laurel after overwhelming Xia Xuanze of China in their semifinal match here on Friday.

Hendrawan, the only Indonesian left in the men's singles draw, used his skills on the net and much of his patience to post a 15- 12, 15-4 win over the All England champion and deny a possible All Chinese final.

In the previous semifinal, Ji Xinpeng dashed Denmark's hopes of retaining the gold medal with a stylish 15-9, 1-15, 15-9 win over third seed Peter Gade Christensen in a match lasting 56 minutes.

World number one Gong Zhichao completed Denmark's second upset of the day by beating world champion Camilla Martin 13-10, 11-3 to win the women's singles crown.

China also assured itself the women's doubles title and its third gold medal in the tournament after two of its pairs set up a final earlier in the day. Defending champions Ge Fei and Gu Jun crushed juniors Gao Ling and Qin Yiyuan 15-7, 15-12 to meet Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei, who beat South Koreans Ra Kyung-min and Chung Jae-hee 15-6, 15-11.

Hendrawan's road to the final silenced doubts among Indonesian officials, who had favored world number one and top seed Taufik Hidayat to take the gold medal. Taufik fell to Ji in the quarterfinals.

Second seed Hendrawan carried an inferior 1-2 head-to-head record against the Chinese going to the semifinal, but Friday's battle proved the Indonesian's superiority.

Banking on long rallies and his mastery on the net, Hendrawan forced 22-year-old Xia to play a close match in the first game. The Indonesian went 8-3 ahead before the Chinese closed in at 7-8 and took over the lead at 11-9. But experience helped Hendrawan clip the Chinese's wing to snatch the opening set in 26 minutes.

In the second game, Xia, who looked frustrated after losing momentum in the first set, began to tally unforced errors to allow Hendrawan to race to 8-0. Hendrawan kept pounding the Chinese shaky defense to close out the match.

"I really enjoyed the game and I will do that again tomorrow. For the final, I have no comment. I hope everybody leaves me alone to give me time to contemplate prior to tomorrow's final," Hendrawan said.

In their last encounter at the Thomas Cup group match in Kuala Lumpur in May, Hendrawan defeated Ji.

Against Ji, Gade Christensen, who had been touted the hot favorite according to the poll conducted by the International Badminton Federation, was unable to perform his best.

Both shuttlers engaged in a hard-fought battle in the first game, which saw the 24-year-old Dane lose his determination after trailing 7-12. The Chinese played an energy-saving game in the second set, allowing Gade Christensen to fire all his ammunitions.

The strategy paid off in the deciding set, as the recovering Chinese dictated the play and never let the Dane close in throughout the 27-minute game.

"It is really difficult to express my feelings right now. I couldn't and I daren't play my game at the match. My hand, my feet, the whole body couldn't work as they used to," he said with a sigh.

Gade Christensen's fiancee, Martin, was a step shy of winning the first game as she built a 10-7 lead. But Gong's superb comeback forced a deuce, and Martin, having lost her confidence, blew her opportunity.

Martin again took the initiative in the second set to go 3-1 ahead, but she lost her endurance and failed to match Gong's deep shots. It took the Chinese just 11 minutes to stop Martin's challenge.

"There's nothing I could do today. Gong played much better and stronger than I did," Martin said, dismissing speculation that Gade Christensen's defeat had distracted her focus.