Indonesia rules Japan Open quarterfinals
Indonesia rules Japan Open quarterfinals
TOKYO (Agencies): All-England champion Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen suffered a shock defeat as Indonesia dominated the quarterfinals of the US$150,000 Japan Open badminton championships here yesterday.
Indonesian men assured themselves of the doubles crown and swept three semifinal places in the singles with more or less emphatic wins.
Only the young pair of Tony Gunawan and Rudy Wijaya were forced to stretch muscles en route to an upset win. The seventh seeds clawed back from a set down to topple fourth seeds Thomas Lund and Jon Holst Christensen of Denmark 12-15, 15-3, 15-13.
Tony and Rudy now set up a semifinal clash against compatriots and second seeds Rudy Gunawan and Bambang Suprianto who overcame South Korean Lee Dong-soo and Ha Tae-Kwon 15-8, 15-12.
World champions Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky defeated Malaysian old foes Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock 15-6, 15-5. In today's semifinals they will meet fellow Indonesians Antonius Irianto and Danny Kantono who dispatched third seeds Jiang Xin and Huang Zhanzhong of China 15-12, 15-0 yesterday.
The men's singles semifinals will see Indonesia parading its top three players, with South Korean Lee Kwang-Jin trying to avoid a second successive all-Indonesia final.
Defending champion Hariyanto Arbi, last year's runner-up Joko Suprianto and Olympic gold medalist Alan Budikusuma all cruised to the semifinals without wasting much energy.
Lee sent third seed Hoyer-Larsen packing in straight sets 15- 10, 15-6 to spark the biggest upset of the day.
"I had a tough match this afternoon ... I think it was one of the reasons, but I couldn't perform my very best in the second match," said Hoyer Larsen, who captured his biggest title in Birmingham last season.
"I'm quite disappointed that tournaments always come up with playing two rounds on Friday," he said. The Dane needed a tough hour to beat Pang Chen of Malaysia 10-15, 15-10, 15-10 in the third round earlier in the day.
In the women's contest, Chinese world champion Ye Zhaoying and defending champion Susi Susanti of Indonesia both coasted to two straightforward victories and stayed on course for a probable final encounter.
Ye outgunned Japan's Kanako Yonekura 11-8, 11-3 and Indonesia's Lidya Djaelawidjaya 11-5, 11-5 to earn a semifinal berth, while Susi made quick work of two Chinese -- Yao Yan 11-1, 11-6 and Zhang Ning 11-4, 11-5.