Hendrawan reaches final, Gong wins gold

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.