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)