RI, South Korea to clash in Uber Cup semifinals

By Arif Suryobuwono

HONG KONG (JP): History repeats itself. So does a showdown between Indonesia and South Korea in the Uber Cup women's team badminton championship semifinal.

Defending champion Indonesia sailed to Thursday's semifinals as Group A runner-up with an empathic 5-0 win over helpless Russia yesterday. The South Koreans finished unbeaten in Group B following their 5-0 demolition of England.

China and Denmark, which also won their last group matches with the same perfect scoreline, set up the other cross-over semifinal on Thursday. China did not drop a single set in its drubbing of Japan and Denmark, scalping minnow Hong Kong yesterday.

In the 1994 Uber Cup semifinal, host Indonesia -- led by the then-unbeatable Susi Susanti -- beat South Korea 4-1. Will the same result be nailed down?

Indonesia's training director, Iwan Setiawan, all smiles after his Uber Cuppers' rout of Russia yesterday, said that the clash is going to be tight. "Both are neck and neck," Iwan said.

But the semifinal this time is far different from two years ago.

Susi has lost three times to Bang Soo-hyun in the last 12 months, dating back from the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship in May, when Susi fell 11-3, 5-11, 5-11. Bang shot down Susi in three sets on her way to the China Open title five months later.

Most recently, Susi went down 7-11, 11-5, 4-11 to Bang in the All England Open championship semifinals last March.

However, Iwan expressed a guarded optimism that taking on Bang shall at least be easier for Susi than taking on China's world No. 1, Ye Zhaoying, to whom the Indonesian lost four times in the same time bracket.

"Susi often crashed to Ye in straight sets, but Bang could not beat Susi that easy," Iwan said.

Iwan realized that South Korea's first doubles pair of Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock were too hard to beat. "I don't think that we can beat them," Iwan said, "but I am optimistic that our second doubles team can overcome any South Korean second doubles partnership."

Iwan added that if only debutant Deyana Lomban were more mature, his team's chance of reaching the final would increase substantially.

Russian No. 1 Marina Yakusheva, who quickly went down 2-11, 5- 11 to Susi yesterday, said she knew that beating Susi was a mission impossible. "I felt honored to play such a respectable world top shuttler as Susi," Yakusheva said.

Russian team manager Vladimir Liftshits said that even though a win over Susi was not in sight, Marina should have played Susi in a more relaxed manner.

Liftshits said his team's loss could well be expected, given that badminton is not a popular sport in his country. "In Russia, badminton ranks perhaps 21st in popularity as a sport. That's why we are quite weak in badminton."

China's coach, Li Yongbo, told reporters after his Uber Cuppers' easy 5-0 win over England yesterday that he was "just a bit" confident his team could beat Denmark in the semifinals. The fact that South Korea had a hard time beating Denmark 3-2 last Thursday signaled a warning to us that we must be careful, Li said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian team manager Lutfi Hamid quoted International Badminton Federation council member Rudy Hartono as saying yesterday that the IBF council meeting yesterday rebuked honorary referee Roger Johansson for allowing the swap of Swedish first Thomas Cup singles player, Jens Olsson, and its second singles player, Tomas Johansson.

Johansson had said that he granted the swapping on behalf of the Swedish team manager's request. The swapping was acceptable, because Swedish first and second singles players do not differ too much in terms of their skills, according to Johansson.

He also argued that such practice was common and in accordance with the IBF rules and regulations. Lutfi reiterated that Indonesia would lodge a formal protest on this to the IBF.

Results: Indonesia bt Russia 5-0 South Korea bt England 5-0 China bt Japan 5-0 Denmark bt Hong Kong 5-0

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