Marriage will not prevent Susi playing badminton
Marriage will not prevent Susi playing badminton
TOKYO (AFP): Susi Susanti, Indonesia's first Olympic champion
and the most successful badminton champion of modern times, will
carry on playing after her marriage to fellow star Alan
Budikusuma next month.
"I definitely am not retiring after the marriage. I'll
continue playing badminton for at least one or two more years,"
said Susi, 25, whose wedding is in Jakarta on Feb. 23.
She said the couple had invited around 1,300 people, including
President Soeharto of Indonesia and that they expected more to
turn up.
Susi said she is not sure if she will play in the world
championships in May in Glasgow, but she promised she will go for
her fifth All-England title in March -- the first tournament
after her marriage.
"There's no specific tournament that I'm eager to win now. I
just want to increase the number of the titles. That's all," said
Susi.
Susi, who made it a romantic "golden double" with Alan at the
Barcelona Olympics in 1992, once held all the world badminton
titles, including the Olympics, world championships, World Cup,
Grand Prix Final and the most prestigious All-England in 1993-
1994.
But the Indonesian prodigy started to show signs of decline as
she failed to win the Asian Games gold in 1994 -- the only major
title to elude her. She lost to former Japanese national champion
Hisako Mizui in the semifinals.
The most successful player of modern times also lost her
Olympic title, crashing to Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea in the
Atlanta semifinals last year.
But Susi proved she is still in top form by winning the
season-ending Grand Prix Final for a sixth time in December,
beating current world champion Ye Zhaoying of China.
Susi, however, entered only the women's doubles event at the
Japan Open here this week, skipping the singles event she won in
1992, 1994 and 1995.
"I just wanted to know how I can play in the doubles," said
Susi who paired up with Finarsih to beat the Japanese pair of
Kaori Mori and Naoko Miyake 15-3, 15-5 in the first round on
Wednesday.
"I played both singles and doubles about 13 or 14 years ago. I
also played doubles in the Hong Kong Open in November and reached
the semifinals. I'm sure I can better my game if I play singles
and doubles," she added.