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