Indonesians dominate at Japan Open

Indonesians dominate at Japan Open

TOKYO (AFP): Title holder Ardy Wiranata and Olympic champion
Alan Budikusuma led Indonesia into a strong position at the Japan
Open badminton here yesterday.

Top seed Ardy stayed on course for a semifinal clash with 1993
champion and teammate Hariyanto Arbi with a 15-6, 15-6 win over
Peter Rasmussen of Denmark.

Second seed Alan, who ended with only the China Open title
last season, trounced Japan's Hideaki Motoyama 15-1, 15-7. Joint
third seed Arbi comfortably went through as Russian Andrei
Antropov withdrew because of domestic problems.

"It was a tough match," said Ardy, playing for the first time
since winning the Grand Prix Final in Bangkok last month.

His third-round opponent will be Ge Cheng of China, who
eliminated Darren Hall of England 10-15, 15-8, 15-12.

Alan will play Park Sung-woo of South Korea, winner over Peter
Espersen of Denmark 12-15, 17-16, 15-1. And Hariyanto will meet
1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Rashid Sidek of
Malaysia, who shot down Ahn Jae-chang of South Korea 15-12, 15-4.

Indonesia also took another four places with world champion
Joko Suprianto, Hermawan Susanto, Fung Permadi and Lioe Tiong
Ping storming through to the third round.