Indonesian shuttlers beat Taipei in JVC Asia Cup

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian shuttlers won their first match over Chinese Taipei 3-0 at the US$100,000 JCV Asia Cup in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.

First singles Taufik Hidayat, 18, found no trouble in crushing old hand Liu En-Hong 15-10, 15-2.

"In the first game, Liu tried to fight hard against Taufik with good strokes. He led 7-4 before Taufik managed to equal 7-7 and took over the game," said team manager Leo Chandra Wiranata in a fax.

"In the second game, Taufik didn't give a chance to his opponent and concluded the match in only seven minutes."

Doubles Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan gave a free lesson to Taipei's Huang Shin-Chung and Chien Yu-Hsun to win 15-6, 15-4.

"Huang and Chien are two levels below Candra and Tony who performed their world-class playing," Leo said.

Indonesia's second singles Hendrawan completed the victory by defeating Chang Jeng-Shong 15-3, 15-11.

"Hendrawan won easily in the first game, but in the second game he seemed to be too relaxed and gave easy balls to his rival," Leo said.

Indonesia is scheduled to face Thailand on Thursday.

In another match, Malaysia, which is also in Group B with Indonesia, overcame Thailand 2-1.

Malaysian first singles Jason Wong had to work hard to defeat Boonsak Polsana 5-15, 15-10, 15-13. But Thai doubles of Pramote Teerawiwatana and Tesana Pansisavas, the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalists, equaled 1-1 after beating the new Malaysian partnership of Rosman Razak and Chew Chun Eng 6-15, 15- 6, 15-11. Malaysia second singles Ismail Saman eliminated Anupap Thiraratsakul 15-6, 15-6 in the decider.

In Group A, top seed China beat Vietnam 3-0 while South Korea defeated India 3-0. (yan)