RICKY AND REXY ELIMINATED BY KOREANS IN HONG KONG OPEN
by Mike Grossman (from reports filed by YANG YANG Badminton Equipment)

November 8, 1996 (New Shuttlenws) - Olympic gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky were eliminated from the badminton Hong Kong Open yesterday in a second-round matchup with Koreans Hwang Sun Ho and Lee Dong Soo. The unseeded Korean pair beat the 3-4 seeded Rexy-and-Ricky combo 15-11 and 15-13.

Second-seeds Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock of Malaysia have gone through to the quarterfinals where they will face the newly formed Indonesian combination of Bambang Suprianto and Dicky Purwotsugiono.

Top-seeds Antonius and Kantono of Indonesia are also expected to be in the quarterfinals.

The men's singles draw is wide open with the withdrawals of the two top-seeds. Number one seed Rashid Sidek of Malaysia was a last minute pullout due to a digestive tract disorder, while second-seed Ong Ewe Hock had withdrawn from the tourney earlier.

In women's singles, top-seed Mia Audina of Indonesia is in excellent form. She put on an awesome display of her prowess in her second-round 11-3 and 11-5 victory over Cai Jian of China. Audina is projected to tangle with second-seed Camilla Martin of Denmark in the finals.

In her second round match, Martin easily disposed of Chan Ya-Ling of Chinese Taipei 11-6 and 11-1.

However, the two women's singles top seeds still have some formidable hurdles ahead of them. Audina must first beat two tough Koreans who are in her side of the draw - Lee Joo Hyun and Kim Ji Hyun, while Martin has to battle first Cindana and possibly Meiluawati, both of Indonesia.