Indonesia routs Sweden 5-0 in Thomas Cup c'ship
By Arif Suryobuwono
HONG KONG (JP): Replacing its second singles player with its first did not help Sweden cut its 5-0 loss to Indonesia on the second day of the Thomas Cup men's team badminton championship here yesterday.
In other Thomas Cup action, Denmark, led by All-England champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen, surprised by edging South Korea 3-2.
World number one Joko Suprianto was stretched to a rubber set before toppling Swedish second singles player Jens Olsson 16-17, 15-3, 15-7.
Top Swedish player Tomas Johansson showed every sign of winning after beating Allan Budikusuma 15-12 in the first set only to have his fortunes abruptly reversed with second and third set losses of 15-5 and 15-2.
Apart from the two "imbalanced" games which stood corrected, the other games ran as expected. The world number two partnership of Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky routed Par Gunnar Jonsson and Peter Axelsson 15-7, 15-3. And Bambang Supriyanto and Gunawan demolished Johan Tholinsson/Henrik Andersson 15-4, 15-3 in 22 minutes, while Ardy B. Wiranata edged Rikard Magnusson 15-5, 15- 12.
Swedish team manager Lars Sologub said he knew that as a small badminton country, Sweden could not win against Indonesia.
He quickly added that he has timed his team to peak at the upcoming Atlanta Olympic Games from July 19 to Aug. 4, not at the Thomas Cup championship.
Sologub expressed pride that Jens Olsson managed to force Joko into playing three sets.
Indonesia's team manager Lutfi Hamid, however, was angered at the swap. Lutfi said it was against the rules to allow a change like that.
However, Lutfi's protest to referee Roger Johansson of Sweden went unheeded. Referee Johansson said he allowed Sologub to make such a swap because Tomas Johansson had been nursing shoulder injuries since the Swedish Open (March 10) and was newly recovered. According to Sologub, Tomas Johansson had not been able to train enough for the Thomas Cup championship and it was reasonable to put him in the second place.
Lutfi and training director Iwan Setiawan, however, said that they planned to lodge a formal complaint with Jeff Robson, chairman of the International Badminton Federation's internation al championships and tournaments committee.
Lars said his swapping strategy was meant to steal two points from Indonesia in the two singles matches in question.
To which Lutfi replied, "Thank God, they could not. We would not have wanted to win 3-2 over Sweden. A 5-0 win was mandatory to boost the morale of our players." said Iwan, who did not expect Sweden to fielded its full lineup.
On his victory, Poul who downed Park Sung-woo 15-8, 15-5 said he had anticipated the win even though he was playing at 80 percent form, the 20 percent being reserved for the Atlanta Olympics. Poul beat Park 15-3, 15-6 in the semifinals of the All- England championships last March.
Poul said he won because he succeeded in pushing Park around with his cross-court cuts. South Korean coach Soon Han-kuk said in broken English that his players were not in good condition. He was unable to elaborate.
Danish coach Morten Frost Hansen, with a proud smile, said that the results (his Uber Cuppers lost to Korea 3-2 and his Thomas Cuppers won 3-2 over Korea) were a clear signal that now none of the great badminton powers can afford to overlook Denmark. "We have proved to the world that our players are get ting better, that they work very well and that we really mean business."
Results Indonesia 5 Sweden 0 Denmark 3 S. Korea 2 Malaysia 5 Hong Kong 0 China 5 England 0
Uber Cup -- Page 12