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".