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.