Marlev improves play to win at Swiss Open

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Marlev Mainaky of Indonesia took five sets to overcome Ng Wei of Hong Kong in the semifinals of the Swiss Open at Basel's St. Jakobshalle on Saturday.

Marlev, whose All England bid crashed in the second round, won 2-7, 2-7, 7-4, 7-1, 7-0, according to www.worldbadminton.net.

But Rony Agustinus, also putting in a mediocre performance at All England, failed to make it an all-Indonesian men's final after he was stopped by James Chua of Malaysia 8-7, 7-8, 7-2, 7-3 in the other semifinal.

Indonesia's hopes for a gold medal were further dashed when Bambang Suprianto and Sigit Budiarto went down to Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung of South Korea in the men's doubles 7-3, 7-1, 8-6.

Lee and Yoo will challenge the European doubles pairing of Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard Hansen. The Danes lost the opening set before fighting back for a 5-7, 7-4, 8-7, 7-4 victory over Liu Kwok Wa and Albertus Susanto Njoto who represented Hong Kong.

Marlev is looking to make amends for his failure in England, in which Indonesia was denied a single title at the world's oldest badminton tournament.

The women's singles final will pit Zeng Yaqiong of China against Mia Audina, a former Indonesian star who now plays for the Netherlands.

Zeng beat Mia's compatriot Yao Jie 6-8, 7-5, 7-4, 7-4, while Mia took her place in the finals at the expense of Kanako Yonekura of Japan with a 7-1, 7-5, 7-5 win.

The Asian-European rivalries have appeared to expand to the other fields as the mixed Britain-Netherlands pairing of Gail Emms and Lotte Jonathans will face Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won of Malaysia in the women's doubles. Jonas Rasmussen and Jane Bramsen of Denmark will take on Koreans Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min in the mixed doubles.

Emms/Jonathans beat Japanese Shizuka Yamamoto and Seiko Yamada of 7-5. 7-1, 7-0 while Ra and Lee defeated Danes Pernille Harder and Mette Schjoldager 7-2, 7-2, 7-2.

Rasmussen and Bramsen won over Chris Bruil and Lotte Jonathans 7-3, 7-2, 3-7, 7-4 while Kim and Ra whipped British hopefuls Anthony Clark and Sara Sankey 7-1, 7-2, 7-0.