Heryanto Arbi retains Hong Kong Open crown
Heryanto Arbi retains Hong Kong Open crown
HONG KONG (Reuter): World champion Heryanto Arbi of Indonesia successfully defended his Hong Kong Open title yesterday when he came from behind to beat his compatriot and practice partner Alan Budikusuma 13-18 15-13 15-4.
In the women's singles, top seed and defending champion Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea prevented an Indonesian double by beating teenager Mia Audina 5-11 11-4 11-5 in a high quality final.
The match between top seed Hariyanto and Olympic champion Alan, seeded second, was predictably close with both players knowing each other's game intimately.
Heryanto, wearing heavy strapping on his right thigh which he injured three months ago, lost concentration after a disputed line call when leading 13-10 in the first game but forced his way back into the match with some aggressive attacking play.
"There were Indonesian fans in the crowd screaming at every point and it put me off at the start because I am not used to that outside the country," said 22-year-old Heryanto, who cemented his number world ranking with his fifth title of the year.
"There was a bad line call near the end of the first game and that also affected my concentration. I played well to come back in the next two games and I'm pleased to have won here as this is my first tournament for three months because of injury."
Indonesia's Mia dominated the first game against titleholder Bang with fluent play but she started to rush her shots in the second game and the more experienced South Korean took advantage of a series of slack shots to lift her third crown this year.
"Audina started to make mistakes in the second game and that helped me win," said Bang.
South Korea's Park Joo-bong, a doubles specialist with few equals, completed a remarkable comeback to top level competition with victory in the mixed doubles with Shim Eun-jung.
Park, the Olympic men's doubles champion, has been off the circuit for two years and was forced to qualify for the mixed doubles here. He showed his class throughout the event and in the final was the mainstay as he and Shim carved out a 15-6 2-15 17-14 victory over the unseeded Chinese duo of Sun Mun and Liu Jianjun.
"I am happy to have made a winning comeback - my aim is to win a place in next year's Olympics in Atlanta and this was the best possible start," said the 31-year-old Park.
Results (prefix denotes seeding) Men's singles: 1-Heryanto Arbi (Ina) beat 2-Allan Budi Kusuma (Ina) 13-18 15-13 15-4 Women's singles: 1-Bang Soo-hyun (Kor) beat 5-Mia Audina (Ina) 5-11 11-4 11-5