GADE BEATS HOYER IN TAIPEI OPEN FINAL

January 12, 1996 (New Shuttlenws) - Peter Gade-Christensen of Denmark, touted as a badminton star of the future, has served notice that the future may have already arrived. Gade today defeated fellow Dane and Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen in the men's singles finals of the five-star Taipei Open to claim his first ever major badminton title.

Gade, who practices against Hoyer regularly, was in form early in the first game as he raced to an 8-3 lead. The Olympic champion then pulled even at 8-8 as his shots began to work. Hoyer took the lead at 9-8 and then 10-8. Gade then seemed to recover his composure and ability to cover the court and retrieve Hoyer's shots. On the other hand, Hoyer began to make errors as he tried to go for the lines and the tight net shots. Gade caught up to Hoyer and then passed him to win the first game 15-10 after two exchanges of serve.

In the second game, Gade again had the upper hand early 5-2. The two exchanged points but Hoyer slowly but surely gained control of the game with fine shotmaking. He tied up the game at 7-7 and then went on a 6-1 scoring run to reach the crucial 13th point.

Gade increased his pace and started to attack more. The tactic paid off as he caught up to more senior Hoyer at 13-all and forced a five-point setting.

In the setting, Hoyer posted two points but Gade was undeterred and continued with his aggressive play, scoring the needed five points to win the second game and the championship match.

In the women's singles finals, Camilla Martin gave Denmark a second title when she defeated Mia Audina of Indonesia 12-10 and 11-2.

The first game was a closely-fought affair that went to Martin mainly on errors by Audina. In the second game, Martin used patient rallying play to tire out and outposition the Indonesian player. Audina's play also turned very erratic and Martin ran away with the game and the title 11-2.

In the men's doubles finals, Chandra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto of Indonesia continued on their winning ways as they defeated the Olympic bronze medalists Denny Kantono and Antonius Iriantho, also from Indonesia.

In the early and middle parts of the first game, the two pairs played hard and were even. In the end game, Antonius seemed to tire and played very badly, allowing Wijaya and Sigit to win at 15-11.

In the second, Wijaya and Sigit played defensively in the opening exchanges, returning smash after smash from the Kantono-Antonius combination. When their opponents, specially the stockier jumpsmashing Antonius, ran out of steam, they then went on the attack themselves and overwhelmed the Kantono-Antonius defenses. Wijaya and Sigit steamrollered to a lopsided 15-2 second game win.

In mixed doubles, Sandiarto and Finarsih defeated Lee Dong Soo and Park Soo Yun of Korea 15-11 and 15-8 to take home a second title for Indonesia.

In the women's doubles, Koreans Yim Kyung Jin and Park Soo Yun took the title, reportedly beating the relatively unknown pair of Yoshiko Iwata and Haruko Matsuda of Japan 15-12 and 15-8.

(A report from another usually reliable source has Yim and Park beating Rikke Olsen and Finarsih 15-12 and 15-8 for the title).