Sidek beats Ardy in world c'ship

Sidek beats Ardy in world c'ship

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP): Rashid Sidek spoiled the hierarchy in men's badminton here Thursday when he caused the only upset to reach the quarterfinals of the world championships.

Malaysia's Sidek, 27, a double Commonwealth Games gold medalist in the men's singles, upset second-seed Ardy Wiranata of Indonesia 6-15, 18-13, 15-5.

The other seven of the world's top eight players reached their allotted berths in the last eight.

Meanwhile in the women's event, Asia extinguished Europe's challenge as both 3/4 seeds, Camilla Martin of Denmark and Sweden's China-born Lim Xiaoqing, fell at the quarterfinal stage.

But Olympic silver medalist Ardy made no excuses in defeat.

"Rashid played much better than me and controlled the whole game," Ardy said.

Rashid fell in the first game 15-6, but surged back to lead 13-9 in the second. Ardy leveled at 13-13 to come two points away from a two-set win.

But Rashid won five consecutive points and raced to 14-2 in the decider.

Rashid glared at the line-judge who indicated with a palm facing down that Ardy's smash had hit the side line.

Ardy won three straight points, but Rashid triumphed on his second match point with a forehand cross court winner to win 15- 5.

World number one Hariyanto Arbi went through with a 15-12, 15- 12 win over South Korea's Lee Kwang-jin to set up an intriguing match against teammate and defending champion Joko Suprianto.

Joko, 28, had little trouble casting aside China's world number 13 Dong Jiong 15-5, 15-4 in 31 minutes.

Joko varied dropshots and long clears to the back of the court to have the 21-year-old Beijing student on the run for the whole of the match.

Joko, 28, said his expected meeting with 23-year-old Hariyanto would be difficult as youth was on Hariyanto's side.

However Joko added his chances were increased as fellow Indonesian Hariyanto may be tiring after his Sudirman Cup matches.

All-England champion Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen of Denmark kept Europe's title hopes on course with a 15-2, 15-4 thrashing of China's Chen Gang.

Larsen now meets Indonesian Hermawan Susanto, who beat Finland's Robert Liljequist, for a place in the semifinals against Hariyanto or Joko.

Ye marches on

In the women's competition, China's Ye Zhaoying kept up her winning march with a 11-5, 11-8 against All-England runner-up and world number four Camilla Martin in the quarterfinals.

Ye beat both Olympic champion Susi Susanti and world number two Bang Soo-hyun in the Sudirman Cup and has consequently beaten three of the world's top four players in the last week.

Ye will want to repeat last week's performance over Indonesian Susanti in today's semifinal. She completely outplayed her rival--considered possibly the greatest player of all-time--11-2, 11-3 on the way to China's first ever Sudirman Cup title.

Susi beat China's unseeded Zhang Ning 11-7, 11-7 to set up the match with Ye.

World number eight Han Jingna of China beat All England winner Lim Xioaqing 11-4, 4-11, 11-1 to reach a semi-final showdown against Korea's second-seed, Bang. Bang beat the competition's youngest seed--15-year-old Mia Audina of Indonesia--11-6, 12-11.