WORLD CHAMPION ARBI UPENDED IN TAIPEI
by Martin Coe and Mike Grossman

January 9, 1997 (New Shuttlenws) - Heryanto Arbi of Indonesia, the current world men's singles champion in badminton, lost his round-of-16 match today at the Chinese-Taipei Open. Arbi, a 3-4 seed in this tournament, was upset by the 9-16 seeded Dutch player Jeroen van Dijk in two sets 17-18 and 8-15.

No additional details on the match were available, but the Chinese-Taipei Open was the first tournament for Arbi since September of 1996. Arbi had at that time sustained a repeat injury to his right leg and was playing with an elastic bandage around the injured muscle.

In other round-of-16 matches in men's singles, Fung Permadi of Taipei, the top seed, beat Han Dong Sung of Korea 15-12 and 15-12 while second-seed Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen defeated Pang Chen of Malaysia 15-12, 10-15 and 15-8. Hermawan Susanto, the other 3-4 seed, beat Wong Choon Han of Malaysia in a close match 18-13, 17-18, 17-14.

Yong Hock Kin of Malaysia upset the 5-8 seeded Hendrawan of Indonesia 15-17, 15-2 and 17-15.

Marleve Mainaky of Indonesia also upset 5-8 seed Hwang Sun Ho of Korea 13-18, 18-17 and 17-14.

Other round-of-16 winners were 5-8 seeds Salim and Peter Gade-Christensen of Denmark.

In women's doubles, Helene Kirkegaard of Denmark, a member of the top-seeded pair, was unable to play. Her partner, Rikke Olsen, was able to get Finarsih, a top-rated Indonesian doubles specialist, to temporarily replace Kirkegaard.

Finarsih had only been entered in the mixed doubles with Sandiarto as her regular women's doubles partner, Lili Tampi, has gotten married and has retired.

Olsen and Finarsih easily won the match today against Chien Yu-Chih and Chen Wen-Hsing of Taipei 15-6 and 15-7 and are through to the quarterfinals.