U.S. OPEN: USA'S HAN ESCAPES ELIMINATION

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS REPORT is presented by badminton world champions YANG YANG (1987 and 1989) and ZHAO JIAN HUA (1991) and by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS **

September 10, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - The USA's top badminton player, Kevin Han, escaped elimination yesterday at the U.S. Open badminton championships being held in the southern California city of Orange. Han, seeded fourteenth in the men's singles event, scraped past Japan's Tadashi Ohtsuka in a second round match that went to three games.

Han took the first 15-6, but Ohtsuka battled back in the second to even the match up with a 15-9 win. In the decider, the tall Chinese-American outplayed Ohtsuka 15-7.

Men's singles top-seed Dong Jiong of China had an easy second-round win over young Howard Bach of the USA 15-7 and 15-3, while second-seed Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark trounced qualifier Patrice Ritchie of Canada 15-2 and 15-2.

World men's singles champion Peter Rasmussen of Denmark returned to international competition yesterday for the first time after winning the world championship in early June. Rasmussen, seeded third at the U.S. Open, beat Jon Frisch of the USA 15-4 and 15-6 in another second-round match.

Fourth-seed Ardy Wiranata of Indonesia defeated Mark Manha of the USA 15-5 and 15-6.

In women's singles, the top four seeds led by Camilla Martin of Denmark did not see any action.

In men's doubles, top-seeds Antonius and Kantono of Indonesia whipped Budy Sumarli and Ferdinand Rivera of the USA 15-4 and 15-9. Second-seeds Michael Sogaard and Jon Holst-Christensen of Denmark toyed with Jean Philippe Goyette and Jonathan Bolduc of Canada 15-2 and 15-1.

In women's and mixed doubles, none of the seeded pairs played yesterday.

(mcoe)