Korea, Denmark to battle in decisive Thomas Cup

Korea, Denmark to battle in decisive Thomas Cup

By Primastuti Handayani

KUALA LUMPUR (JP): South Korea and Denmark will be involved in
a do-or-die match in the blue group round-robin in the Thomas Cup
championships at the Putra Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

As both teams have won their opening matches, Sunday's match
will be a decisive one because whoever wins goes on to the
semifinals.

Danish coach Steen Pedersen hoped his singles could win all
matches. He was unsure about his doubles chances against the
Koreans.

"Tomorrow will be a very crucial match for both of us. We have
seen first singles Shon Seung-mo and second singles Lee Hyun-il
in the All England and Swiss Open. I don't really understand why
local press are focusing their attention on Ahn Jae-chang. I
think Lee is the most dangerous player among them," he said on
the sideline of the training session Saturday.

Denmark outclassed India 5-0 while South Korea shocked host
and runner-up Malaysia 2-3 Friday.

"We have two doubles to face Korea but in individual
tournaments they have yet to perform well enough. We hope the
first doubles will put pressure on the Koreans."

"While the second doubles are still new. We can't count on
them. We will definitely have difficulties against Korea,"
Pedersen said.

The Danish team lineup will likely be world number one Peter
Gade Christensen against Shon Seung-mo, Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen
facing Lee Hyun-il.

Anders Boesen is likely to replace Kenneth Jonassen -- who had
a shaky start over Sidarth Jain of India previously -- to take on
either Ahn Jae-chang or Park Tae-sang.

In the doubles, world number two Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon
seem likely to earn one point as they have an easy contest
against Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen.

Second pair Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung are much more
powerful compared to Danish new duo Martin Lundgaard Hansen and
Lars Paaske.

Separately, South Korean team manager Kwon Seung-taik said:
"We hope our team can perform better in the next match against
Denmark. The key remains on our two doubles. If one of our three
singles win, it means we win the group. There's no doubt on the
doubles."

"Our two singles -- Shon is only 19 while Lee is 21 -- are
still very young and they will possibly lose to the more
experienced Danish players. However, I expect them to learn
valuable lessons from the Danes."

On another court, host and runner-up Malaysia, which has just
recovered from a shocking defeat, must overwhelm India 5-0 to be
able to reach the semifinals.

In the team's line up, Malaysia is likely to field the same
players except for the second singles. Old hand Ong Ewe Hock, who
was blamed as being the cause of the loss, is likely to be
replaced by Yong Hock Kin.

Low profile

In the Uber Cup match, Sweden was, once again, is downplaying
its chances of beating Korea in the purple group round-robin
match. It only wants to avoid a crushing defeat .

Coach Atik Djauhari expected a better fight compared to the
way his team played against China Friday.

"We are lacking in power to beat Korea. We only hope the
shuttlers can put up a better fight. This is a good experience
for our players, specially since we are without Marina
(Andrievskaya) and Jenny (Karlsson) who are absent due to
injury," he said.

With only six members in the team, Sweden is likely to field
Margit Borg in both singles and doubles event.

"We don't have enough good players for the event. One of them
must be willing to play twice and we decided to field Margit two
times tomorrow."

China, hoping for its seventh Uber Cup victory, is likely to
have an easy match against the Netherlands. With all shuttlers in
the world top five in both singles and doubles events, China has
nothing to worry about.

As head coach Li Yongbo proclaimed: "There's no other team in
the world that can beat China".