Soni beats top seed Wei in Hyderabad

Soni beats top seed Wei in Hyderabad

Associated Press, Hyderabad, India

Two-time champion Soni Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia upset top ranked Wei Ng of Hong Kong 15-3, 15-11 on Saturday for reach the men's singles final at the Asian Badminton Championship.

The seventh seed, Asian title winner in 2002 and 2003, will play second-seeded Kuan Beng Hong in Sunday's final after the Malaysian saw off third-seeded South Korean Lee Hyun-il 15-11, 15-4.

Women's singles top seed Chen Wang brought smiles back to the Hong Kong squad as she cruised past sixth-seeded Cheng Shao-chieh of Taiwan 11-8, 11-2 to enter the final.

Chen's title contest will be against third-seeded Kaori Mori of Japan, who defeated second-seeded compatriot Hirose Eriko 11- 5, 5-11, 13-10 in the other semifinal.

Soni banked on his sound defense to ward off the attacking Wei, using his accurate strokes to sprint to a 7-0 lead. Wei could do little as the Indonesian grabbed seven more consecutive points to clinch the opening game.

In the second game, Soni recovered from a 4-5 deficit to take a 12-5 lead before the top-seeded Wei waged a late rally. Wei narrowed the gap to 11-12, but could not stop his opponent from securing passage into the title round.

"I was confident of doing well against Wei and anticipated his shots well," said Soni, 21. "But he dramatically increased the pace in the second game. That confused me for a while before I adjusted to it."

Soni also upset fourth seeded Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, the player he beat for the Olympic bronze medal in Athens, to storm in the last eight on Friday night.

He fought back after dropping the first game to stun the Thai number one 11-15, 15-4, 15-11.