South Korea convinced of making badminton top spot

By Primastuti Handayani

COPENHAGEN (JP): Sending just a 10-strong team to the Sudirman Cup here, South Korea predicted for itself on Sunday a 100 percent record to finish first in Group A.

Han Woo-joo, the Badminton Association of South Korea official in charge of international affairs, expressed guarded optimism that his team would beat both home-favorites Denmark and Sweden to meet the Group B runner-up, either defending champion China or Indonesia, in the semifinals.

The tournament begins on Monday and will run through Saturday. South Korea will open its campaign against host Denmark on Monday. In Group B, China will meet Malaysia.

"Our team will find more difficulties in the semifinals against one of the Asian teams. If we can beat Denmark, we expect to face Indonesia in the semifinals," Han said, adding that the draw lived up to his team's expectation very much.

South Korea has won the Sudirman Cup twice, in 1991 and 1993, but failed to reach the final in 1995 and lost to China in the 1997 final.

Against Denmark, Han said his team would concentrate on winning the three doubles events, as they lacked singles players who could match those of the badminton powerhouses.

Its top men's singles Ahn Jae-chang is only ranked 37 in the world, while national number two Park Tae-sang is not in the top 100. In comparison, Denmark have five shuttlers in the world top 15.

The two Korean women's singles, Kim Ji-hyun and Lee Kyung-won, world number 16 and 26 respectively, are ranked far below Dane Camilla Martin, who is world number three.

But South Korea has two men's pairs in the top 16 -- world number eight Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung and number 10 Ha Tae- kwon and Kim Dong-moon. It also has world number 11 ladies pair Ra Kyung-min and Chung Jae-hee. In the mixed doubles, the world number one partnership of Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung min is expected to overcome Denmark and Sweden. They will be backed up by number five Ha Tae-kwon and Chung Jae-hee.

"Hopefully we can win all the doubles events. In our match against Denmark, we hope Kim Ji-hyun can spring a surprise on Camilla Martin," Han said of Monday's match.

Another six Korean players are expected to arrive here on Thursday for the succeeding World Championships from May 16 to May 23.

Denmark team manager, Thomas Lund, said on Sunday that Denmark would steal a win in the women's doubles to beat South Korea. Lund hinted that he would rely on world number three pair of Marlene Thomsen and Rikke Olsen to overcome Korean All England champions Ra Kyung-min and Chung Jae-hee in the match.

The host is almost certain to field world women's singles number three Camilla Martin, whom Lund called the most capable player to defeat Korean number one Kim Ji-hyun.

In the men's singles, Lund said he would choose between world number one Peter Gade Christensen or Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen. Lund said Peter Rasmussen and Thomas Stuer Lauridsen would miss the mixed team championships, but refused to disclose the reasons.

Modest target

Separately, Sweden's Indonesian coach, Atiek Djauhari, said he would not expect too much from his athletes in the round-robin group stage. He said his team's main target was to overcome Malaysia to remain in the World Group.

Atiek, a former coach of Indonesia's men's doubles team, said Sweden stood a better chance against Malaysia as the latter did not have top-class women's players.

Sweden has world number 13 Margit Borg, number 15 Karolina Ericsson and number 29 Marina Andrievskaya in the women's singles. While Malaysia's two top players, Woon Sze Mei and Ng Mee Fen, are only ranked 38 and 61 respectively.

"We are stronger than Malaysia in both the women's singles and doubles, but they are far better than us in the men's section. The crucial match will be the mixed doubles," he said.

Sweden's mixed doubles team of Frederik Bergstrom and Jani Karlsson, world number 33, won the Nordic championships in their last match in March.

"The Sweden-Malaysia match in the men's singles is very close, with the odds rated at 52-to-48 in favor of Malaysia. In the men's doubles, we have a very slight chance but we'll give it our best shot," said Atiek, a coach of the 1996 Olympic gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky and 1997 World Champion Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto.

Malaysia's Danish coach Morten Frost Hansen said Sweden had a better chance to beat his team.

"Some of Swedish players are old but still good enough to beat us. But we have good men's singles line-up. However, it doesn't guarantee a win because there are five matches," he said.

Malaysia's team manager, Datuk Al Amin, said he did not expect too much from the Sudirman Cup, because his top two men's singles players Yong Hock Kin and Ong Ewe Hock lacked tournaments this year.

Ewe Hock injured his hamstring in the 1998 Commonwealth Games and suffered an infection from an insect bite during the Final Grand Prix in Brunei Darussalam in February. Hock Kin had to help his family build up their pig farm.