Indonesia's great escape to win the first Sudirman Cup
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Five minutes can make a world of difference. As Susy Susanti sat in a corner of Istora Senayan stadium during the mid-match break, listening to her coach's advice for the final game against South Korean Lee Young Suk, she expected a fight to the end.
It was a case of do-or-die for Susy, then 18, to keep alive Indonesia's chances of taking the inaugural Sudirman Cup mixed team championship on May 28, 1989.
The home crowd had streamed into the Senayan arena -- site of some of the country's great Thomas Cup men's team competition triumphs, as well as the notorious Scheele disqualification incident in 1967 -- expecting a popular victory on the Sunday evening.
Indonesia was favored to win, having beaten the Koreans 4-1 in preliminary round-robin matches, followed by a 5-0 trouncing of Denmark in the semifinals.
The victory would be especially fitting for the championship was named after the man responsible for steering the country to its greatest international badminton triumphs.
But the Koreans, who upset the fancied Chinese team in the semifinals, showed they were not content to settle for second best.
Men's doubles pair Eddy Hartono and Rudy Gunawan and women's doubles Verawaty Fajrin and Yanti Kusmiati lost to the visitors, putting the home side in a precarious position.
Indonesia was confident that Susy, the former world junior champion who had reached the All-England women's final earlier in the year, would keep the tie alive. Two days previously, she outlasted Lee in the preliminary round match, saving a match point in the process.
Instead of a comfortable win, however, it would turn out to be a dramatic contest of see-sawing fortunes, climaxing with a startling incident.
"I started well, and I remember reaching 10-7 in the first game but she forced it to deuce, and then won 12-10," Susy said from her home in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.
After nearly 16 years, Susy's memory may be fuzzy on the details of the match; contemporary accounts have her leading 10-2 before her lead was whittled away.
In the second game, Lee continued to hold the momentum, surging to 10-2 and then with serve at 10-7 -- match point for South Korea to take the title.
Susy took a deep breath and focused on keeping the shuttle in play.
"I knew I had to take it one point at a time, just do my best. I began winning points again, and maybe she tried to end it too quickly. I managed to force another tiebreak, and this time I took it."
Susy recollected that some disappointed spectators had walked out of the stadium during the second game. As she returned to court after the break for the final game, people, hearing of her comeback, were returning to the stands.
She also quickly noticed that her opponent was distraught.
"When she came back, she looked sad and confused. I could see her eyes were red from crying. I knew that I had to keep up the pressure on her, not give her any chances to get back into the game. I wanted to finish the match the best way I could."
Susy swept to victory in seven minutes without losing a point; The Jakarta Post's comment the following day was that the Korean "... seemed to have little appetite for a fight".
Her victory opened the way for Indonesia to take the title. Eddy Kurniawan beat Han Kok-sung in the men's singles and Eddy Hartono and Verawaty won the mixed to take the cup.
As Indonesia celebrated, stories were already circulating about what caused Lee's public meltdown -- that she had received a blistering scolding from her coach during the break and, some said, been slapped for failing to convert on match point.
Heavy-handed coaching is nothing new in badminton or other sports, but the treatment reportedly meted out to Lee -- at such an important event -- caused considerable debate.
"I didn't know what had happened to her during the break, because we were in different areas of the stadium. But people said her coach was angry and had slapped her," Susy said.
"I never experienced anything like that again. The thought of someone being hit by their coach, especially a girl, when our parents would not even do something like that, was shocking!"
Susy, who went on to become the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, four-time All-England winner and 1993 World champion before retiring in 1998, said she never thought about the "what if?" of losing to Lee.
"I've always just wanted to do my best. It would not have been a problem if I lost, because I always tried to learn from losing. But winning the match that way probably gave me the motivation to set higher goals, and also greater confidence to compete in the top ranks."