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Swedish Open: Koreans Lords Of The Semifinals
** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by
YANG YANG Badminton Products and
their Western USA agents BADMINTON ALLEY.
**
March 6, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Korean players dominated today's semifinal
matches at the three-star Swedish Open badminton championships in Borlange,
Sweden. They ended the day already certain of two titles with Koreans winning
both of the semifinals in the men's doubles event as well as in the mixed
doubles. They also posted one semifinal victory apiece in the women's singles
and in the women's doubles events.
In the mixed doubles semifinals, Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Min, the recently
crowned World Grand Prix Finals champions, put out Indonesians Wahyu Agung and
Ema Ermawati, the tournament top seeds, in overwhelming fashion 15-5 and 15-1.
In the other mixed doubles semifinal, Ha Tae Kwon and Chung Jae Hee defeated
Chen Qiqiu and Huang Sui of China 15-6 and 15-10.
In the men's doubles final four, defending All-England champions Lee Dong Soo
and Yoo Yung Sung beat Swedes Frederik Bergstrom and Henrik Andersson 15-7
and 17-14, while Kim Dong Moon and Ha Tae Kwon upended top-seeds Victo Wibowo
and Lee Wei Jen of Taiwan 15-8 and 15-3.
In the women's singles semifinals, Kim Ji Hyun defeated the youthful Indian
star Aparna Popat 11-5 and 11-5 to set up a championship match with Gong Ruina
of China , the current world junior champion. Gong was an easy 11-2 and 11-5
winner over Korea's Lee Kyung Won today.
In the women's doubles final four, Ra Kyung Min and Chung Jae Hee put out
the highly seeded Indonesian pairing of Etty Tantri and Cynthia Tuwankotta
15-8 and 15-0. China's Lu Ying and Huang Sui prevented an all-Korean final in
the event when they beat Lee Kyung Won and Yim Kyung Jin 15-12 and 15-4.
Host country Sweden still has one player in contention for a title. In an
unexpected all-Swedish semifinal, Rasmus Wengberg defeated the giant-killer
Daniel Eriksson 15-4 and 15-2. Eriksson had accounted for top-seed Taufik
Hidayat of Indonesia in the quarterfinals and also 5-to-8 seed Thomas Stuer of
Denmark in the round-of-16.
China's Chen Hong grabbed the other men's singles final berth when he beat
veteran Ahn Jae Chang of Korea 15-9 and 15-3 in his half of the semifinals.
(ap/ds)
COPYRIGHT 1999 © YANG YANG BADMINTON EQUIPMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Posted With The Permission Of The Copyright Holder.
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