Luluk and Alven bounced out of Korea Open

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Defending champions and top seeds Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto made an abrupt exit in the second round of the Noonnoppi Korea Open on Thursday.

The Indonesian shuttlers, who received a bye in the first round, lost in straight games 12-15, 3-15 to the host team of Jae Sung Jung/Jae Jin Lee in Incheon City.

Although the pair had been expected to at least reach the final, Luluk told The Jakarta Post last week that he feared it would be difficult to acclimatize to the chilly Korean winter, as the tournament was played last year during spring.

However, the veteran team of Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto kept Indonesia's hopes alive in the men's doubles by taking their first round match 17-15, 15-7 over Malaysia's Mohammad Fairuzizuan B. Tazari/Woon Fui Lin.

At press time, the 1997 world champions and 2003 All England title holders, who have had an on-again, off-again partnership, were playing the 6th seeded Korean pair of Tae Kwon Ha/Bang Eun Yim.

Indonesia's Simon Santoso met his match in the last 16 of the men's singles, but the badminton player went down fighting to seventh seeded Shoji Sato of Japan.

The first ever encounter between the two men was a closely fought contest. Simon recovered from losing the first game 11-15 to take the second 15-10, but Sato mustered all his resources to win 15-11 in the third.

After a dismal 2004, in which he rarely advanced to the second round of major tournaments, Simon's efficient defeat of 10th seeded Agus Hariyanto, who is Indonesian born but now playing for Hong Kong, and host player Kang Woo Kyum in the second round were encouraging.

The sole remaining Indonesian mixed doubles pair, Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, face China's Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen in the quarterfinals on Friday.