Indonesia dominates c'ship

Indonesia dominates c'ship

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP): Indonesians dominated play at the Asian Badminton Confederation Championship Thursday, capturing five spots in the men's singles quarterfinals.

China, Taiwan and Malaysia each had one player qualify.

Top seeded Sun Jun of China easily defeated South Korean Kim Hyung-joon, 15-1, 15-4 Thursday for a semifinal berth.

Indonesia's Ardy Wiranata, seeded second, took much longer to defeat Malaysian Ismail Saman, 15-17, 15-8, 15-3.

Ardy will meet Taiwan's Lee Mou Chow, who took a 15-12, 9-15, 15-7 win over Indonesia's Salim, who goes by one name.

Two Malaysians also fell to their Indonesian opponents. Roslin Hashim lost 5-15, 10-15 to joint fifth-seed George Rimarchdi. Unseeded Taufik Hidayat stole the limelight with an upset win over Malaysia's Yong Hock Kin.

Yong took the first set 15-6, but found the Asian Junior Champion a tough opponent when he lost the next set 6-15.

The 16-year-old Hidayat, supported by a crowd of cheering Indonesian immigrants, grabbed the third set 17-14. He will face compatriot Hermawan Susanto.

In another match, Wong Choon Han of Malaysia lost his first set against Susanto 13-15 in 22 minutes. But he clawed back from 9-12 to beat Susanto 15-12 in 26 minutes.

In the decider, the players went into deuce at 14-all, but Susanto, ranked 10 in the world, broke the tie to win 17-14.

Malaysia's Ong Ewe Hock, the joint third seed, easily defeated China's unknown Xia Xuanze 15-2, 15-5.

In the women's singles, reigning world junior champion Yu Hua of China upset South Korea's top seeded Lee Joo-hyun 11-4, 11-4.