ASIAN GAMES: HENDRAWAN OUSTS TOP SEEDED SUN

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December 16, 1998 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Hendrawan, Indonesia's current number one player in men's singles, today defeated top-seeded Sun Jun of China in semifinal action at the individual badminton medal competition at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and earned himself a certain silver medal plus a chance to go for the gold tomorrow against Dong Jiong of China, winner of his final four match against Yong Hock Kin of Malaysia.

Sun who had been trounced by Hendrawan in the finals of the team medal competition last week started off well in the opening game, while the player from Indonesia was off-form. Sun took the first set 15-6.

In the second game, Hendrawan settled down and began to play long and patient all-court rallies. He gained a comfortable lead at 8-3, but, at this point, Sun broke the pattern and started to attack more. The Chinese change in tactics brought Sun even with Hendrawan at 8-all. The Indon battled back and pulled away again to an 11-8 lead, then to game point at 14-10. Sun scrambled back two points but Hendrawan was able to regain the service and score the game winner at 15-12.

In the decider, Hendrawan moved ahead early 4-1 and won at 15-9 as Sun began to play inconsistently and made several errors.

In the other men's singles semifinal, Olympic silver medalist Dong Jiong of China outplayed Yong Hock Kin and won 15-5 and 15-10 in a match that took about 40 minutes.

Early in the opening set, Dong and Yong exchanged points for a 2-all tie. The Malaysian then broke away to a 5-3 lead with jumpsmashing play. Dong came back at Yong with strong attacking shots to score and pull even at 5-all.

The Chinese player then shut down Yong with a combination of deceptive hesitation jumpdrops and jumpsmashes as well as tight and tricky netshots.

In the second game, Dong remained in control early and posted a 4-0 lead. Yong came back aggressively and pulled even with Dong at 7-all after several service rotations. The two battled point for point, jumpsmash for jumpsmash and netshot for netshot until 10-all when the Chinese player burst out for 4 markers with several scoring jumpsmashes to the lines.

Faced with match point, the Malaysian stopped Dong but failed to score on his service turn. Dong then served for the match again and tallied the winner when he pounded a smash into Yong's body.

In one of the women's singles semifinal, second-seed Gong Zhichao of China came back from a shock 6-11 first game setback and beat Lee Joo Hyun of Korea with 11-4 and 11-4 scores in the next two sets. Japan's Kanako Yonekura beat Sujitra Eakmongkolpaisarn of Thailand in the other semifinal 11-5 and 11-2.

Olympic champions Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky of Indonesia beat Liu Yong and Yu Jinhao in one of the men's doubles semifinals 15-10 and 15-11. Thai players Pramote Teerawiwatana and Siripong Siripol upended 1998 All-England champions Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Yung Sung of Korea in the other men's doubles semifinal 16-17, 15-6 and 15-7.

In women's doubles, world champions Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China defeated Ra Kyung Min and Chung Jae Hee of Korea 15-11 and 15-9, while Eliza Nathanael and Deyana Lomban put out Qin Yiyuan and Tang Hetian of China 15-10 and 15-5.

Players from Korea ruled the mixed doubles semifinals. Olympic gold medalist Kim Dong Moon and silver medalist Ra Kyung Min combined for an easy 15-3 and 15-6 win over Zhang Jun and Qin Yiyuan of China, while Lee Dong Soo and Yim Kyung Jin upset top-seeds Trikus Heryanto and Minarti Timur of Indonesia 17-16 and 15-9. With the double victory, the Koreans guaranteed themselves an Asian Games gold medal in badminton.

(mc/ds)

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