Indonesia reaps four titles at Indonesia Open badminton meet
Indonesia reaps four titles at Indonesia Open badminton meet
By Hidayat Jati
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Indonesia seized four titles at the 1994 RCTI
Indonesian Open while the men's doubles All-Indonesian final
achieved a milestone, delivering the tourney's best match here
yesterday.
After more than two hours of an intense, three-set drama --
which included about ten match-points and several broken rackets
-- the top seeded pair of Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky overcame
compatriots Bambang Suprianto and Gunawan 10-15, 15-4, 18-17 and
grabbed the US$15,000 grand prize
About 2,000 fans at the Among Raga hall were hysterically
following the game, which was nail-biting from the start. All the
four men were jumping, diving, rallying, smashing and screaming
all over the place, showing the audience beyond any doubt that
they were witnessing a clash of the titans in men's badminton
doubles.
When it was all over, on the sidelines, Rexy -- who at one
point during the third set ominously bent down, looking as if he
might throw up -- threw himself to the ground while Bambang took
a seat, half-naked because he ran out of shirts.
"Excellent game, one of the best ever," said men's double
coach and former doubles great Christian Hadinata to the
journalists.
"Both parties fought to the end and used all of their skills,"
he said. "Of course it finally required some elements of luck,"
Gunawan, still bathed in sweat and surrounded by reporters,
admitted.
"Just as a matter of fact, at point 3-3 during the second set
there was one bad call made by the linesman which benefited
Ricky/Rexy," he said.
"However, they did play better than Bambang and I," added the
stocky double specialist. Both pairs met in two championship
finals with Bambang and Gunawan winning them all.
Joko tumbles
Meanwhile, a mild upset took place in the men's singles as
third seed Ardy Wiranata tamed top-seed and world number one Joko
Suprianto 15-9, 15-8. The two players played a conservative game
made up of long rallies and lobs, with very little glamour or
acrobatics. To illustrate, there were at least four changes of
serve on average before either Ardy or Joko scored an additional
point.
Overall, however, Ardy dictated the pace of the match and Joko
committed a streak of very costly unforced errors during the
second set, especially between the point when he was behind 6-9
to 8-13.
Joko, usually a calm player, even protested to the linesman
whom he thought made a bad call against him at 8-13. "Show me how
his shuttle was in," the linesman quoted him as saying
afterwards.
Not long after the protest, Ardy made a couple of smart
dropshots and terminated the match.
"I played pretty poorly, I was tired," Joko conceded
afterwards. "The funny thing was that I actually expected Ardy,
who faced Hariyanto Arbi in the semi-finals, to be more tired
than me."
Earlier in the day, top-seed Susi Susanti continued her
winning streak by gaining her eighth title out of eight
tournaments this year after neutralizing second-seed Bang Soo-
hyun of South Korea 2-11, 11-0, 11-6.
The ladies doubles saw a repeat of the World Cup finals in
Vietnam. Recovering from a defeat in the first set, South Korean
Chung Soo-young and Gil Young-ah fought hard in the second set,
only to concede an upset 10-15, 15-9, 15-17 loss to host
favorites Lili Tampi and Finarsih.
Results
Women's single
Susi Susanti (Ina) bt Bag Sooo-hyun (Kor) 2-11, 11-0, 11-6.
Men's single
Ardy Wiranata (Ina) bt Joko Suprianto 15-9, 15-8
Men's double
Ricky Subagja/Rexy Mainaky (Ina) bt Bambang Suprianto/Gunawan 10-
15, 15-4, 18-17
Women's doubles
Lili Tampi/Finarsih bt Chung Soo-young/Gil Young-ah 15-10, 9-15,
17-15
Mixed doubles
Jiang Xin/Zhang Jin (China) bt Flendi Limpile/Dede Hasanah (Ina)
15-3, 15-11