Two big names confident of early victory in Thomas Cup

Two big names confident of early victory in Thomas Cup

KUALA LUMPUR (JP): Former world greatest doubles players Kim
Moon-soo and Park Joo-bong will participate in the Thomas Cup
championships round-robin match at the Putra Indoor Stadium in
Bukit Jalil on Friday.

Kim, who partnered with Park, winning the 1992 Olympic Games
gold medal, is coaching the South Korea team and will challenge
his former partner's team, Malaysia, at the decisive opening
match.

Playing before their own home crowd, Park, replacing Dane
Morten Frost Hansen in 1999, has a good chance of winning the
Thomas Cup.

Kim, relying on first doubles Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon
and second doubles Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-suu, expressed
optimism that his team would win the opening match.

"In the doubles sector we can be sure of winning two points.
However, we must be aware of Malaysia's top pair of Choong Tan
Fook and Lee Wan Wah. The Malaysians defeated us three times in
their four meets," he said after a training session Thursday.

"Our first doubles team will have difficulty against them. But
in the second doubles, we will easily win over Cheah Soon Kit and
Yap Kim Hock."

"We hope to be able to steal one point in the singles. But I
have to admit that Malaysia is a little bit stronger than us."

Park admitted that the Thomas Cup was very important for the
Malaysians and he felt under pressure to do well before the home
crowd.

However, Park said they would be able to steal a few points in
the doubles, expressing optimism that Choong and Lee would be
able to repeat their victories over Kim and Ha in the previous
meets.

"Kim and Ha may be one of the strongest pairs in the world but
I hope Choong and Lee will be able to use their experience to
defeat them."

"I will also field Yap in the opening match since he has
recovered from his injury."

Yap got his injury during training last month but had already
practiced with teammates prior to the championships.

Malaysia will likely field Wong Choong Hann in the first
singles to face Ann Jae-chang, second singles Yong Hock Kin is
likely to face Lee Hyun-ill and third singles Roslin Hashim is
likely to challenge Park Tae-sang.

Park considered Ahn as the decision maker for both teams.

"We have an advantage in that Ahn injured his ankle after
competing in the Japan Open last month. Despite his four-week
rest, we are not sure how well he has recovered," he said.

Easy victory

In another match, Denmark will likely have an easy victory
over India, relying on its world number one singles Peter Gade
Christensen and Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen.

Coach Kenneth Larsen said: "We must win as big as possible in
order to avoid losing in points. I don't mean to underestimate
India. They qualified for the event and it means they are good
enough."

India's head coach Syed Mohammed Arief was realistic about his
team's position in the group.

"We are in a very strong group and basically we only want to
give our best. We lost to South Korea 2-3 in New Delhi in
February, I think we have a chance."

"I know Denmark will do their best to beat us but we want to
avoid a 5-0 whitewash."

In the Uber Cup team, China will be no contest to Sweden.

Swedish coach Atiek Djauhari said: "Our girls are lacking in
experience because of the absence of top singles Marina
Andrievskaya and doubles Jenny Karlsson. Both were injured in the
European championships last month."

In another match, the Netherlands was pessimistic about its
chance to beat South Korea because one of its singles players,
Brenda Beenhakker, and a doubles player, Erica Van Den Heuvel,
were injured.

"Without Erica and Brenda we must revise our strategy. We
don't want to come in last place," said head coach Martijn van
Dooremalen. (yan)