Ong Ewe Hock out of Asian Badminton C'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Ong Ewe Hock of Malaysia suffered the biggest upset so far at the US$150,000 JVC Asian Badminton Championships at Senayan Indoor Stadium on Wednesday, bowing out to China's Chen Yu in the second round.

Indonesia's top players had no trouble reaching the next rounds of the event, which is now missing a number of top players.

Ong -- who had been grounded for three recent European tournaments due to his conduct after losing at the Sydney Olympics -- was unable to cope with Chen's tactical strokes in his 9-15, 9-15 defeat.

"I never met him before so I didn't know his style, but I think he's a good player. He played better than I did today," Ong said after his defeat.

"There wasn't enough preparation time for these championships after the Olympics. I only started my preparations about three weeks ago. It's not enough."

Malaysian head coach Park Joo-bong, who was very disappointed with his shuttlers poor form at the Olympics, kept them out of the German Open, Dutch Open and Danish Open.

Chen will now meet Anupap Thiraratsalul of Thailand, who had to sweat out a 3-15, 15-10, 15-10 win over Indra Wijaya of Singapore. Indra, the elder brother of Indonesian gold medalist Candra Wijaya, was part of the Indonesian national squad before moving to Singapore in the middle of this year due to his stagnant performance.

Top seed Taufik Hidayat, who had a bye in the first round, proceeded easily to the third round by beating Zaw Mg Mg Soe of Myanmar 15-3, 15-8 before a handful fans.

Second seed Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia managed to make his way into the next round after a difficult 15-10, 12-15, 15-7 victory over Japan's Takaaki Hayashi.

Wong, who hopes to meet Taufik in the final, will next face Anuj Gupta of India. Gupta had a comfortable 15-3, 15-3 win over Mahbubur Rab of Bangladesh.

In the men's doubles event, Indonesia's new partnership of Rexy Mainaky and Tony Gunawan put on an excellent performance to beat the young Malaysian duo of Hong Chien Hun and Jeremy Gan 15- 10, 15-4.

Rexy and Tony -- who first teamed up at the Thomas Cup in Kuala Lumpur in May -- will meet now face Rasel Kabir Suman and Mahbubur Rab of Bangladesh.

Candra Wijaya and Antonius Budi Ariantho had a walkover win after Japan's Tsuyoshi Fukut and Yosuke Nakanishi withdrew from the event.

The Indonesians will now meet Sachin Ratti and Abhishek Bakshi of India, who defeated Sri Lanka's N. Karunaratne and Subash Janaka 15-4, 15-6.

Young Indonesian shuttlers Hadi Saputra and Andreas managed to overcome South Korea's Choi Min-ho and Lee Moung-hun 15-9, 15-11. In the next round they will have the challenging task of facing top seeds Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah of Malaysia, who are ranked fifth in the world. Choong and Lee had a bye on Wednesday.

Second seeds Kittipon Kitikul and Khunakorn Sudhisodhi of Thailand coasted to a 15-1, 15-1 victory over Pernando Manjula and Kumara UDRP of Sri Lanka.

The Thais will meet Imam Sodikin and Luluk Hadiyanto, who beat Jafar Al-Sayed Ebrahim Jafar and Hamed Al-Sayed Ebrahim of Bahrain in a 15-0, 15-1 laugher.

Third seeds Ma Che Kong and Yau Kwon Yuen of Hong Kong beat Takaaki Hayashi and Katsuya Nishiyama of Japan 15-12, 15-6, and will now meet the Indonesian duo of Deni Setiawan and Doni Prasetya, who beat China's Chen Yu and Wu Yunyong 15-9, 15-6.

In the mixed doubles, Indonesia's new partnership of Bambang Supriyanto and Minarti Timur defeated Ma Che Kong and Li Wing Mui of Hong Kong 15-12, 15-1, while Tri Kusharjanto and Vita Marissa overcame Jeremy Gan and Ang Li Peng of Malaysia 15-9, 15-6.

On-and-off-court partners Tony Gunawan and Etty Tantri also reached the next round by crushing Zaw Mg Mg Soe and Khine Nyein Win of Myanmar 15-2, 15-1. (nvn/yan)

Selected results

Men's singles second round: Park Tae-sang (Kor) bt Yudi Suprayogi (Ina) 10-15, 15-1, 15-10; Xiao Li (Chn) bt Yong Hook Kin (Mas) 17-15, 7-15, 15-7; Pullela Gopichand (Ind) bt Awang Amran Kambar (Bru) 15-2, 15-3; Shon Seung-mo (Kor) bt Jeffer Rosobin (Ina) 15-12, 3-15, 15-8; Luo Yigang (Chn) bt Tran Thanh Hai (Vie) 15-5, 15-2; Marlev Mainaky (Ina) bt Chetan Anand (Ind) 15-13, 15-1; Rony Agustinus (Ina) bt Wu Yunyong (Chn) 15-11, 15-11; Lee Hyun-il (Kor) bt Tam Kai Chen (Hkg) 15-12, 15-5

Women's singles first round: Atu Rosalina (Ina) bt Cheng Pei Ju (Tpe) 11-4, 2-11, 11-5; Yuli Marfuah (Ina) bt Lee Yin Yin (Mas) 6-11, 11-1, 11-0; Xie Xingfan (Chn) bt Khine Nyein Win (Mya) 11-3, 11-0; Ling Wan Ting (Hkg) bt De Silva Dilhani (Sri) 11-8, 11-1; Aparna Popat (Ind) bt Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung (Vie) WO