Indonesia takes two titles in Grand Prix finals
Indonesia takes two titles in Grand Prix finals
By Primastuti Handayani
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Indonesia took two of the five titles at
stake in the Lipton World Grand Prix Badminton Finals here
yesterday, courtesy of Susi Susanti and the pair of Ricky
Subagdja and Rexy Mainaky.
Ricky and Rexy, the Olympic gold medalists, solidified their
status as the world's strongest men's doubles pair when they beat
archrivals Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock of Malaysia, 15-4, 15-
9.
What was touted as a clash reminiscent of their memorable,
three-set thriller at the Atlanta Olympic final, turned out to be
a meek affair, with the Indonesians, who were in devastating
form, completely dominating the Malaysians from the outset.
Earlier Susi won the Grand Prix Finals women's singles crown
for a record sixth time, whipping her old nemesis China's Ye
Zhaoying in straight sets, 11-4, 11-1 in less than 40 minutes. It
was Susi's third win in four encounters against Ye this year. She
lost to the Chinese Number One only in the Japan Open last
January.
In-form Susi rose to the occasion splendidly as she frustrated
Ye with her trademark super-defensive game, marked by long and
energy-sapping rallies forcing the Chinese into numerous errors.
"I was a little bothered by the draft in at the stadium, so I
decided to play safe by hitting the shuttle as low as possible
during the rallies," Susi said after the match.
Two other Indonesian finalists, the women's doubles pair of
Eliza and Yelin, and the mixed doubles team of Trikus Heryanto
and Minarti Timur fell at the last hurdle.
Eliza and Yelin went down with a whimper, 14-15, 4-15 to
China's Olympic champions Ge Fei and Gu Jun.
Trikus and Minarti crashed to Denmark's Michael Sogaard/Rikke
Olsen, 10-15, 11-15.
The men's singles title went to unfancied Fung Permadi, a
former Indonesian player now playing for Chinese Taipei. Fung
scored an upset 15-12,15-9 victory over the highly regarded Sun
Yun of China.
It was Fung's first major title in 13 years. He left Indonesia
for Australia in 1994 before migrating to Chinese Taipei later
that year.
Trikus was gracious in defeat. "We have to admit that the
Danes played better than we did," he said.
"It was a very good match. Trikus made lots of unforced errors
much to our advantage. Every rally was very long and grueling,
and I think he was as tired as I was," Sogaard said.
From the outset, it was painfully clear that Trikus and
Minarti , who beat Sogarard and Olsen in last August's Malaysian
Open, were out of form.
The vociferous roars of encouragement from the 2,000
spectators failed to help them raise their game to the desired
heights. Time and again they made a string of unforced errors,
both driving the shuttles into the net and hitting it out of
play.
Trikus/Minarti made the final by defeating Peter Axelsson and
Catrine Bengtsson of Sweden 15-4, 17-16, Saturday while Sogaard
and Olsen beat compatriots Thomas Stavngaard and Ann Jorgansen
18-13, 15-6.
Eliza and Zelin, who cruised into the final after beating Qin
Yiyuan and Tang Yongshu of China 15-6, 15-6, were a total
letdown, much to the dismay of the spectators.
On the contrary, Ge and Gu, who had just received an award
from Hong Kong-based Star TV as the best players of the year,
duly lived up to their highly rated billing. The Chinese duo got
to the final after eliminating Lisbet Stuer-Lauridsen and Marlene
Thomson of Denmark 15-8, 10-15, 15-7.
"Ge and Gu played extremely well. We simply could not match
them. No doubt, they deserved the victory," a dismayed Eliza
said.
World Cup -- Page 14