Malaysia's Wong stuns RI's Budi at Japan Open

Malaysia's Wong stuns RI's Budi at Japan Open

TOKYO (AFP): Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia stunned world number three Budi Santoso in straight games to claim a quarterfinals berth in the Japan Open badminton on Thursday.

The 18th-ranked Malaysian rallied to a 15-7, 17-14 victory in the men's singles third round.

The 1998 Commonwealth Games titleholder said the triumph rated alongside beating Luo Yigang of China when he was also ranked third in the world.

"I've been quite patient in the match today and I won a lot of points by hitting some pushes. I think he was a bit aggressive and impatient, he was too eager to get points," added the 22-year-old Wong.

In Friday's quarterfinals, Wong will take on another Indonesian, 16th seed Marlev Mainaky, who eliminated last local hope Keita Masuda 15-3, 15-7.

There were no other upsets in the men's singles with defending champion Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark, fourth seed Sun Jun of China, and 1997 Japan Open champion Peter Rasmussen of Denmark joining Wong.

World number one Gade Christensen needed only 29 minutes to quash Chien Yu-hsiu of Taiwan 15-1, 15-3.

"He (Chien) beat Dong Jiong of China last night, and I said to myself 'don't underestimate him, you just have to play your game and play your best'," said the 22-year-old Dane.

Sun, the 1998 All England champion, breezed past Jeffer Rosobin of Indonesia 15-7, 15-10, while sixth seed Rasmussen outgunned two-time Japan Open champion Hariyanto Arbi 15-1, 15- 11.

Malaysia made another berth in the quarterfinals when Ong Ewe Hock, 10th seed, defeated last year's runner-up Luo 15-13, 2-15, 15-9 in a tough 66 minutes to earn a place against Sun.

Boonsak Polsana of Thailand, who shocked world number two Fung Permadi Tuesday, ended his run as he bowed to China's Chen Hong 9-15, 14-17, while Johan Hadikusuma of Indonesia downed Ahn Jae- chang of South Korea 15-8, 15-13.

In the women's contest, China's world number five Zhou Mi faced a scare before beating Sujitra Eakmongkolpaisarn of Thailand.

The fourth-seeded Zhou, who won the French Open two weeks ago, got off to a flying start winning 13 points in a row to lead 2-0 in the second game against the 33rd-ranked Thai.

But Zhou lapsed into overhead errors as Sujitra tenaciously twice came back in the final game before finally scoring an 11-1, 7-11, 11-9 victory.

Her teammates, world champion Ye Zhaoying, defending champion Gong Zhichao, Zhang Ning and Gong Ruina, all coasted to easy straight-game victories over Japanese opponents in the third round.

Ye, who won the most prestigious All England for a third year running last month, fended off Kyoko Komuro for an 11-1, 11-6 win, while Gong Zhichao eased aside Kaori Mori 11-2, 11-1.

"Probably I will have to play my teammates in each round now. We know each other very well and everybody can beat anybody on her day. I think my chances are only 50-50," Ye said.

The third-seeded Ye will have to play two-time Malaysian Open champion Zhang in the quarterfinals.

Zhang, fifth seed, outgunned Mayumi Ito 11-3, 11-2, while Gong Ruina, ranked second in the world, smashed aside Takako Ida 11-3, 11-4.

In other matches, Kim Ji-hyun of South Korea shocked Japanese champion Miho Tanaka 11-3, 11-7, while Japan's top player Hisako Mizui subdued of Maja Pohar of Slovakia 11-2, 11-3.

Satomi Igawa was an 11-9, 11-4 winner over fellow Japanese Hiroko Nagamine to earn a place against Gong Zhichao.