Taufik edges Gade for semifinal place
Taufik edges Gade for semifinal place
Agence France-Presse, Tokyo
Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat repeated his excellent performance in Athens by beating former world number one Peter Gade to reach the semifinals at the Japan Open badminton tournament on Friday.
The Indonesian, who knocked the Dane out of the Olympics quarterfinals, showed no ill effect after recovering from knee and back injuries to score a 15-13, 12-15, 15-12 victory over the second seed.
In the semifinals on Saturday, Taufik will take on All England champion Chen Hong, the winner over fellow Chinese Chen Yu 17-14, 15-4.
The other semifinal match will be played between China's world number one Lin Dan and Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark.
The top-seeded Lin avenged his semifinal loss to fellow Chinese Bao Chunlai with an 11-15, 15-6, 15-4 win, while Jonassen, fourth seed, eliminated six seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 15-10, 15-7.
Taufik said it was a "strange match," because neither could play in his own style as the two players were troubled by the winds caused by the air conditioner and lights over the court.
"It was a battle of patience, but I don't think I won because my patience was better, and I don't think Peter lost because he couldn't play patiently," said Taufik.
"I'm not in my best form because of the injuries, but I tried to show my best performance on the court, for myself, for Indonesia and for the fans in Japan. I had a strong feeling to do so. I think that's why I won today."
Taufik, playing his first event of the year due to the injuries, got off to a good start taking a 9-3 lead in the first game as Gade missed several points by mis-judging the course of the shuttle.
But the Dane, two-time champion here in 1998 and 1999, fought back by hitting some unstoppable smashes to stretch the lead from 8-7 to 13-7 in the second game before squaring the contest.
Service changed hands several times at 9-9 in the decider with Taufik increasing the speed of his game hitting an array of attacks from short range to take a commanding 14-10 lead.
Gade also retaliated with quick attacks to stave off four match points and crawl back to 12-14.
But Taufik fired a jump smash on a Dane high serve to have a fifth match point and finished off the 95-minute battle with another lightning smash, which Gade hit back wide.
Meanwhile, Lin also said he could not play his game in the first game because of the winds over the court.
"It was difficult to control the shuttle, because the head wind was strong in the first game. The wind was not against in the second game, but still it was difficult to control," said Lin.