Sigit, Halim remain in Hong Kong Open
Sigit, Halim remain in Hong Kong Open
JAKARTA (JP): The new partnership of Sigit Budiarto and Halim
Heryanto are Indonesia's sole hope in the US$30,000 Hong Kong
Open final, after they easily defeated Chang Kim Wai and Hong
Chien Hun of Malaysia 15-6, 15-7 in Friday's semifinals.
"Sigit and Halim performed better tonight, even better than
yesterday when they beat second seeds Chan Chong Ming and Jeremy
Gan of Malaysia 17-14, 15-8," said coach Sigit Pamungkas in a
telephone interview.
Sigit and Halim, who are trying to qualify for the 2000
Olympics, will meet the 1996 Olympic Games silver medalists Cheah
Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock of Malaysia in Saturday's final.
The Malaysians, who lost to Sigit and former partner Candra
Wijaya in the 1997 World Championships, had a walkover win from
world number two Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung of South Korea as
Lee injured his foot when playing in the mixed doubles earlier.
Unfortunately, Indonesian men's singles Irwansyah failed to
follow his compatriots as he bowed out to Tam Kai Chuen of Hong
Kong 3-15, 15-13, 11-15.
"Irwansyah could not control his emotions when both shutters
were tied 11-11 in the third game. He played doubtfully and made
unforced errors. If only he could have boosted his motivation a
bit, I believe he could have won," Sigit said.
Tam will face second seed Chen Wei of China who had a walk
over win over Agus Heryanto, an Indonesian playing for Hong Kong,
due to illness.
In the women's singles, Chinese Xie Xingfang beat teammate Wei
Yan 11-4, 11-8 to face Wan Ting Ling of Hong Kong, who defeated
Hu Ting of China 11-5, 4-11, 11-2.
In the women's doubles Lu Ying and Huang Sui of China beat
Yong Kyung-jin and Lee Hyo-jung of South Korea 15-6, 15-10. They
will meet top seeds and compatriots Chen Lin and Jiang Xuelian
who beat the Malaysians Lim Pek Siah and Joana Quay 15-1, 15-4.
In the mixed doubles, Malaysians Chan Choong Ming and Joana
Quay beat South Koreans Lee Dong-soo and Lee Hyo-jung 15-11, 15-
10 to face the Chinese duo Guo Siwei and Chan Lin, who won 15-9,
15-6 over Njoto Susanto and Chan Mei Mei. (yan)