ASIAN JUNIORS: INDONESIA SCRAPES BY INTO 2 TEAM FINALS

April 9, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Indonesia barely made it past their semifinal opponents last night in the male and female team competitions at the Asian Junior badminton championships being held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

The Malaysian boys almost eliminated their archrivals from Indonesia while the Korean girls had their chances against the Indonesian female players.

On the other hand, China easily went thru to the finals of both team events. The Chinese boys clobbered Korea 5 matches to none and the Chinese girls did the same to the Japanese female team.

In the Indonesia-Malaysia male team semifinal, Malaysia's James Chua gave his team a boost in the opening singles with a come-from-behind win over Taufik Hidayat 6-15, 15-6 and 15-11.

Hidayat seemed to be in control of the match early as he very easily took the first game from an erratic and nervous Chua. Chua settled down in the second and found his touch. He raced to a 5-0 lead before Hidayat could get a point.

Chua never relinquished his grip on the second game. He widened the gap to 7 points, 8-1. Hidayat tried to come back but the Malaysian boy kept him at bay until he finally tallied the game winner at 15-6.

In the decider, Chua was still in command early, racing to an 8-0 lead. The Indonesian though started to catch up with steady play. Hidayat stifled Chua's scoring and tallied 8 to the Malaysian's 1 to creep to within a single point of Chua.

Chua however was not to be denied. He stopped the Indonesian string of points and pulled through to win at 15-11.

In the second singles, Rudy Ignatius of Indonesia dropped the first game to Lee Tsuen Sen 9-15 but came back to win the second and third games 15-12 and 15-5 over a tiring Lee.

The third singles between Swamped Hartawan of Indonesia and Yeoh Kay Bin was another three-game affair. Hartawan took the first 15-9 and Yeoh won the second 15-10.

In the meantime, Malaysia's junior world champion doubles pair of Jeremy Gan and Chan Chong Ming defeated Luluk Hadianto and Mohamed Noor Misori 15-4 and 15-11 on the adjacent court.

The deciding game of the third singles then took on a great significance for both Malaysia and Indonesia as the Malaysians were now on the verge of victory and the Indonesians on the brink of defeat.

It was Hartawan who saved the day for Indonesia as he beat the tiring Yeoh in the decider 15-9.

Indonesia and Malaysia were now all knotted up at 2 matches apiece.

In the all-important second doubles match, Denni and Chandra of Indonesia matched shots against Yap Wee Meng and Tan Soo Sen with Denni and Chandra winning at 15-12 and 15-12 to claim the semfinal win for Indonesia at 3 matches to 2.

In the Indonesia-Korea female team semifinal, the Indonesian girls also had to struggle before taking the victory at 3 matches to 2.

(jcfontanilla/migrossman)