COPENHAGEN MASTERS: DANES HAVE A TERRIBLE DAY

** 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 29, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - It was a terrible day yesterday at the Copenhagen Masters international invitational badminton tournament for Danish players like Hoyer - the 1996 Olympic men's singles gold medalist, Rasmussen - the current world men's singles champion, Holst and Sogaard - one of the top rated men's doubles pairs in the world, and Eriksen and Larsen - another of the top-rated men's doubles pairs.

Hoyer was defeated by Heryanto Arbi of Indonesia 9-15 and 7-15. Rasmussen lost to Sun Jun of China 15-18 and 7-15. Holst and Sogaard were beaten by Chandra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan of Indonesia 6-15 and 8-15, while Eriksen and Larsen fell to Simon Archer and Chris Hunt of England 7-15, 16-17.

The Danish defeats in the last set of matches in the round-robin stage mean that there will be no Danes in the men's singles and men's doubles finals scheduled for this evening at the Circusbygningen.

Only Camilla Martin, Denmark's women's singles ace, came through last night with a come-from-behind victory over Zeng Yaqiong of China 11-12, 11-3 and 11-3 to qualify for the championship match in her event.

In the Hoyer-Arbi matchup, the Dane had the advantage early on in the first set and led 5-1. Hoyer held on to the 4-point advantage going into the endgame at 9-5, but at this point Hoyer began to lose his touch. Arbi was then able to overhaul Hoyer's lead and won over the tiring Dane at 15-9.

In the second game, Hoyer again gained the early advantage 5-2, but at 7-4 Arbi again started to outplay the Olympic champion. The Indonesian held Hoyer scoreless as he went on to win at 15-7.

According to sources close to Hoyer, the Olympic champion has not been able to train hard due to the recent birth of his second child and is not in top physical condition. According to the same sources, Hoyer today was not able to sustain the high quality of play that he needs to have in order to win against a top player like Arbi.

In the Rasmussen-Sun match, Rasmussen was in command in the first set and held a huge 8-1 lead when the Danish lefthander began to miss the lines. Sun then stepped up his play with excellent netshots and defense. He also took advantage of Rasmussen's errors to pull even at 9-all. The two then matched points until they reached deuce at 13-all.

In the tiebreak, Rasmussen's errors continued and Sun got the win at 18-13.

Sun dominated the second game and won it 15-7.

In men's doubles, the two-set win by Archer and Hunt over Eriksen and Larsen moved the English pair into the finals by virtue of a countback. The three pairs in their group (Archer-Hunt, Eriksen-Larsen, Gan-Chan) all finished pool play with identical 1-match-won and 1-match-lost records but Archer and Hunt had the best games-won versus games-lost record.

In tonight's finals, Arbi will play Sun for men's singles title. Wijaya and Gunawan will face Archer and Hunt in the men's doubles championship match. Martin will battle China's Gong Zhichao who defeated Mette Pedersen of Denmark 11-3 and 11-4 yesterday afternoon and then Marina Andrievskaya of Sweden 11-1 and 11-2 last night.

Following are the complete results of the round-robin phase:

Saturday - Afternoon Session:
Women's Singles Pool 1: Marina Andrievskaya (Sweden) beat Mette Pedersen (Denmark) 11-8, 11-3
Men's Singles Pool 1: Ardy B. Wiranata (Indonesia) beat Peter Rasmussen (Denmark) 15-9, 18-17
Men's Doubles Pool 1: Jeremy Gan/Chan Chong Ming (Malaysia) beat Simon Archer/Chris Hunt (England) 11-15, 17-15, 17-15
Men's Singles Pool 2: Heryanto Arbi (Indonesia) beat Jeroen van Dijk (Netherlands) 15-8, 15-4
Men's Doubles Pool 2: Jon Holst-Christensen/Michael Sogaard (Denmark) beat Peter Axelsson/Par-Gunnar Jonsson (Sweden) 15-1, 15-6

Saturday - Evening Session
Women's Singles Pool 2: Camilla Martin (Denmark) beat Olivia (Indonesia) 10-12, 11-5, 12-11
Men's Singles Pool 1: Sun Jun (China) beat Ardy Wiranata (Indonesia) 15-11, 15-3
Men's Doubles Pool 1: Jens Eriksen/Jesper Larsen (Denmark) beat Jeremy Gan/ Chan Chong Ming (Malaysia) 17-14, 15-18, 15-9
Men's Singles Pool 2: Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen (Denmark) beat Jeroen van Dijk (Netherlands) 15-12, 12-15, 15-6

Sunday - Afternoon Session
Women's Singles Pool 1: Gong Zhichao (China) beat Mette Pedersen (Denmark) 11-3, 11-4
Men's Doubles Pool 2: Chandra Wijaya/Tony Gunawan (Indonesia) beat Peter Axelsson/Par-Gunnar Jonsson (Sweden) 15-8, 15-3
Women's Singles Pool 2: Zeng Yaqiong (China) beat Olivia (Indonesia) 11-4, 11-7
Men's Singles Pool 2: Heryanto Arbi (Indonesia) beat Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen (Denmark) 15-9, 15-7
Men's Doubles Pool 1: Simon Archer/Chris Hunt (England) beat Jens Eriksen/ Jesper Larsen (Denmark) 15-7, 17-16

Sunday - Evening Session
Women's Singles Pool 1: Gong Zhichao (China) beat Marina Andrievskaya (Sweden) 11-2, 11-2
Men's Singles Pool 1: Sun Jun (China) beat Peter Rasmussen (Denmark) 18-15, 15-7
Women's Singles Pool 2: Camilla Martin (Denmark) beat Zeng Yaqiong (China) 11-12, 11-3, 11-3
Men's Doubles Pool 2: Chandra Wijaya/Tony Gunawan (Indonesia) beat Jon Holst-Christensen/Michael Sogaard (Denmark) 15-6, 15-8

(mcoe/dsimmons)