WORLD GRAND PRIX FINALS: DONG WINS OLYMPIC REMATCH

** 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 **

December 13, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Dong Jiong of China, the loser in the badminton men's singles gold medal match at the recent Olympic Games in Atlanta, today avenged his loss with a masterful victory over the Olympic gold medalist Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark in one of the semifinal matches at the World Grand Prix Finals being held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dong defeated Hoyer 15-9 and 15-7.

The Chinese player was on the top of his game today. Dong moved Hoyer all over the court with his very deceptive shots - jumping clears to the rear corners mixed with leaping dropshots and smashes, all delivered with a similiar preparatory racket movement. Dong's spinning netshots were also effective.

Hoyer did muster several scoring streaks and was occasionally competitive, but did not have enough to counter Dong's shotmaking specially in the later parts of both games.

After the match, Hoyer commented that Dong's deceptive shots were so good that, in the second game, he had begun to lose confidence that he could win.

In the other men's singles semifinal, Sun Jun of China beat world number one Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark 15-10, 15-17 and 15-6 to set up an all-China championship match tomorrow.

Denmark also did not fare well today in the semifinals of the men's and mixed doubles. Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen were beaten by Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock of Malaysia 15-2 and 15-9, while the mixed doubles team of Eriksen and Marlene Thomsen were defeated by Trikus Heryanto and Minarti Timur of Indonesia 15-9 and 15-2.

With the Danish losses today, tomorrow's finals will be all-Asian affairs.

In women's singles, Indonesian super player Susi Susanti changed her playing style to defeat Gong Zhichao of China 11-8 and 11-4 in one of today's matches. Susanti, known more for her multiple clearing shot tactics and for patient rallying play, varied her shots more today. She was also more offensive-minded against Gong who had defeated the Indonesian previously by outclearing and outrallying her.

With her victory, Susanti gained the chance to win an incredible seventh World Grand Prix Finals title. She will be matched up against world champion Ye Zhaoying to whom she has only lost in a final once.

Ye made it to the championship match with an easy 11-6 and 11-4 victory over teammate Wang Chen.

In men's doubles, world champions Chandra Wijaya and Budiarto Sigit beat the Olympic gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky 5-15, 15-8 and 15-3 in a semifinal matchup of top Indonesian pairs. Wijaya and Sigit will play Cheah and Yap for the title tomorrow.

Ge Fei and Gu Jun, the women's doubles world champions, defeated Indonesia's Eliza Nathanael and Resiana Zelin 15-6 and 15-9, while their teammates, Qin Yiyuan and Tang Yongshu, disposed of Qiang Hong and Liu Lu, another Chinese pair, 15-9 and 15-10.

The Ge-Gu versus Qin-Tang championship match tomorrow will be a rematch of June's world championships final.

The mixed doubles final will pit world champions Liu Yong and Ge Fei of China against home crowd favourites Trikus Heryanto and Minarti Timur. Liu and Ge beat Bambang Suprianto and Rosalina Riseu of Indonesia with surprising ease 15-2 and 15-3.

Liu and Ge had had a less than spectacular tournament thus far, losing one match and being taken to three games in two other matches in the round-robin phase. Their easy victory today against Suprianto and Riseu, the world number three pair, raised speculation among the Indonesian badminton players and fans that the world champions had been pacing themselves for the semifinals and the finals.

(fontanilla/dsimmons)