Rimarodhi, Johansson in men's badminton final

Rimarodhi, Johansson in men's badminton final

PARIS (AFP): Indonesia's George Rimarohdi and Sweden's Tomas Johansson met in yesterday's men's singles final at the French Open badminton championships.

Rimarodhi, 20, beat Germany-based teammate Dharma Gunawi 15- 11, 15-7 in a one-sided match. Johansson earned his final place after fighting back from a set down to beat Denmark's Thomas Sogaard 10-15, 15-10, 15-1 in Saturday's other semi-final.

Rimarodhi, like last year's champion Sun Jun of China, is unranked, but has gained valuable experience in his first senior tournament in Europe.

He is in Indonesia's second group, behind the top eight players amongst whom six will be chosen for the world championships in Lausanne, Switzerland in May.

Gunawi, who has a player/coach contract with Langenfeld, will be satisfied with reaching the semi-finals as he is a doubles specialist. He competes in yesterday's men's doubles semi-final with Switzerland's Imay Hendra.

Rimarohdi, a former Indonesian junior runner-up, easily contained the attacking flair of Gunawi and won on his second match point when Gunawi netted a forehand.

Johansson, world ranked 28, had a much tougher time. Sogaard, 51st on the world list, dominated the first game as he varied his length and power of shot.

But Johansson eventually used his 6ft 6in frame and long reach to advantage as he retrieved well and ground down his opponent.

In the women's event, Russia's second seed Marina Yakusheva earned a 11-5, 11-1 victory over Indonesia's Olivia, who put a forehand wide facing her second match point.

In yesterday's final, Yakusheva faced compatriot Elena Rybkina, who toppled top seed Margit Borg of Denmark on Friday. Rybkina beat Monique Hoogland of Holland 11-0, 11-6 in the other semi-final.