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Sat, 20 Nov 1999

JP/Indonesian doubles hope bows out in China Open

Indonesian doubles hope bows out in China Open

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's sole hopes in the US$150,000 China Open Antonius, Budi Irianto and Denny Kantono, failed to reach the final and had to bow out to world champion Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon of South Korea 5-15, 3-15 in Beijing on Friday.

Kim and Ha will face Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung, who defeated Simon Archer and Nathan Robertson of England 15-8, 15- 13, in an all-Korean final on Saturday.

The poor results were predicted earlier by the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) training director, Christian Hadinata, who said that he did not expect his athletes to win a title in the tournament.

"I just expected them to improve their world rankings to enable them to qualify for the Grand Prix Finals in Brunei Darussalam early in December," he said.

Chinese shuttlers dominated all other events except in the men's singles where Fung Permadi, an Indonesian competing for China Taipei, will challenge Dong Jiong of China.

Fung, top seeded here after world champion Sun Jun of China withdrew due to a waist injury, crushed Xiao Hui 15-10, 15-7. Dong, 16th seeded here and upset junior and 12th seeded Xia Xuanze 15-11, 15-4.

In the all-Chinese semifinals, young shuttler Zhou Mi, seeded sixth, had to work hard to overcome senior and fifth seeded Gong Zhichao 8-11, 11-7, 11-3.

Zhou will challenge world number two Gong Ruina, who eliminated former world number one Ye Zhaoying 11-1, 11-9.

World number one women's doubles Ge Fei and Gu Jun easily won over juniors Chen Ling and Jiang Xuelian 15-3, 15-7. The world champions will face second seeds Qin Yiyuan and Gao Ling of China, who eliminated Yim Kyung-jin and Lee Hyo-jung of South Korea 15-8, 15-0.

In the mixed doubles, world number one Liu Yong and Ge Fei were much too powerful for the unseeded combination of Lee Dong- soo and Lee Hyo-jung of South Korea to win 15-13, 15-5.

Liu and Ge will face juniors Zhang Jun and Gao Ling, who surprisingly upset Danish pairs of Jon Holst-Christensen and Ann Jorgensen, seeded second here, 15-8, 15-9. (yan)