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TAIPEI OPEN: PERMADI WINS SECOND MAJOR TITLE IN A ROW

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG Badminton Products and their Western USA agents BADMINTON ALLEY. **

January 24, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Taiwan's Fung Permadi, a former men's singles ace player for Indonesia, won a battle of international tournament champions today in the final of the Taipei Open and captured his second major badminton tournament in a row. Permadi defeated Malaysian veteran Rashid Sidek in three sets 17-16, 6-15 and 7-15 to add his adopted home country's Open men's singles title to the Korean Open crown he won last week.

In men's doubles, Indonesians Denny Kantono and Antonius Budi Ariantho pulled off a minor upset when they beat second seeds Cheah Soon Kit and Choong Tan Fook of Malaysia in another three-setter 15-4, 14-17 and 15-8.

Mixed doubles world champions Liu Yong and Ge Fei of China continued to prepare to defend their world title this coming May by winning today's championship match with top-seeded Indonesians Bambang Suprianto and Rosiana Zelin 15-12 and 15-10. Liu and Ge were silver medalists last week in Seoul, Korea.

Zhou Mi of China, the youthful winner of the Korean Open women's singles title last week, was not able to keep on winning today. She was beaten in the final by her senior teammate Dai Yun 5-11 and 8-11.

The women's doubles winners at last week's Korean Open also failed to claim a second title in a row. Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei went down to defeat at the hands of Helene Kirkegaard and Rikke Olsen, a scratch Danish pairing, 15-13 and 15-5.

Kirkegaard and Olsen were a world-beating combination up to 1997 but switched to other partners last year. They were paired together for the Korean and Taipei Opens when their current partners were unable to compete.

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