Indonesia assured gold medal in mixed doubles

Imanuddin, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Indonesia has secured itself one gold in the Sanyo Indonesia Open 2002 at the Kertajaya Badminton Hall here after two of its mixed doubles pairs advanced to the finals following their victory in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

The road to an all-Indonesian final in the mixed doubles was opened when the nation's senior but unseeded couple, Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur, defeated China's Zhang Jun and Gao Ling in rubber sets 11-3, 5-11 and 11-9.

Sixth seeded Nova Widianto and Vita Marisa followed their seniors by defeating first seeded Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager of Denmark in straight sets 13-11 and 11-7.

Indonesia also took one ticket to the final matches when seventh seeded Taufik Hidayat defeated his younger compatriot, unseeded Rony Agustinus, in straight sets 15-12 and 15-9, in the men's singles competition.

However, Saturday saw a setback in the Indonesian men's doubles when its two pairs lost to their opponents in the semifinals.

Unseeded but defending champions Chandra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto had to surrender to an Indonesian pair who now play for England, Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian, 15-98, 5-15 and 1-15.

Another pair, seventh seeded Halim Haryanto and Tri Kusharyanto, lost to fourth seeded South Koreans Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Yong Sung 4-15 and 9-15.

Meanwhile, China, which had been absent from the Indonesia Open since 1997, also secured an all-Chinese final in the women's singles after fourth seeded Zhang Ning defeated her fellow Chinese, sixth seeded Dai Yun, in straight sets 11-2 and 11-9, while unseeded Gong Ruina defeated second seeded Zhou Mi, also of China, in straight sets 11-2 and 11-4.

China also secured two tickets to the finals.

One ticket went to second seeded Gao Ling and Huang Sui after they defeated South Korea's fourth seeded Ra Kyung Min and Lee Kyung Won 11-4 and 11-6. But China's other pairing, fifth seeded Zhang Jiewen and Wei Yili, went down to unseeded Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisarn and Saralee Thungthongkam of Thailand 2-11 and 9-11.

Another ticket to the finals for China was secured when unseeded Chen Hong, who won the Singapore Open last week, defeated fellow Chinese, fourth seed Bao Chunlai, 15-10 and 15-2