Nova/Lilyana double up for Korea Open wins

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Mixed doubles fifth seeds Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir of Indonesia carved out back-to-back wins on Wednesday for a place in the quarterfinals of the Noonnoppi Korea Open 2005.

The shuttlers overcame unsteeded Hwang Ji-Man/Jun Woul-Sik of South Korea 15-5, 15-6 in the first round, and then came back from a game down to dispatch Carsten Mogensen/Rikke Olsen of Denmark 6-15, 15-11, 15-8 later in the afternoon.

They next play Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen of China, who edged third seeded Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thungthongkam of Thailand 15-12, 11-15, 17-14.

All mixed doubles pairs will have a rest day on Thursday before resuming competition on Friday.

However, the success of Nova and Lilyana was not shared by their eighth seeded compatriots Anggun Nugroho/Yunita Tetty, who were beaten by unseeded Keita Masuda/Kumiko Ogura of Japan 12-15, 15-12, 4-15.

In men's singles, unseeded Simon Santoso of Indonesia continued his run of success by defeating Choi Sang-Won in the second round.

The Korean kept it close in the first game, but Simon pulled ahead and then romped home in a 15-13, 15-4 victory.

In Thursday's third round, Simon, conqueror of 10th seed Agust Hariyanto of Hong Kong on Tuesday, plays seventh seed Shoji Sato of Japan. The latter took a hard-fought 13-15, 15-7, 15-10 win over host player Kang Woo-Kyum in the second round.

Simon has never faced Sato.

Top seeded Dane Peter Gade and compatriot Kenneth Jonassen also advanced to the third round.

Gade overcome Hwang Jung-Woon of Korea 15-3, 15-11, while second seeded Jonassen's experience told as he beat World Junior Championship 2004 Gong Weijie of China 15-6,15-6.

Gade next meets Korean player Ko Joon-Hyung, who beat 15th seed Andrew Smith of England 15-11, 15-13.

Jonassen plays ninth seed Muhd-Hafiz Hashimof Malaysia, who conquered Korean Lee Cheol-Ho 15-12, 15-12.

All men's doubles pairs will start their first and second round matches on Thursday, including three pairs from Indonesia: defending champions Luluk Hadiyanto/Alven Yulianto, Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto and Markis Kidho/Hendra Setiawan.