** HELP!!! Keep NEW SHUTTLENWS going - BUY our sponsor's products. **

Indonesian Open: Hidayat Captures Men's Singles Gold

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG Badminton Products< and A> and their Ontario (Canada) agents - SHAH Enterprises **

September 5, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Taufik Hidayat, Indonesia's eighteen year-old badminton phenom, today captured the men's singles title at the Indonesian Open badminton championships in Denpasar, Bali. In today's championship match, Hidayat defeated teammate Budi Santoso in a closely contested battle 17-14 and 15-12.

Indonesians today took three other titles in all-Indonesian final contests. In women's singles, Lidya Djaelawidjaya beat Ellen Angelinawati 11-8, 9-11 and 11-2. In men's doubles, Olympic champions Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja toppled the top-seeded pairing of Chandra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan 15-12 and 15-8, and in mixed doubles, Tri Kusheryanto and Minarti Timur staged a successful defense of their Indonesian Open championship when they beat Bambang Suprianto and Resiana Zelin 15-3 and 15-4.

Denmark's Helene Kirkegaard and Rikke Olsen took the women's doubles crown. They defeated Eliza Nathanael and Deyana Lomban 15-12 and 15-7 and prevented an Indonesian sweep of the titles.

In the men's singles final, Hidayat and Santoso battled each other for every point in the first set. The two fought down to the wire and into a 14-all score to force the three-point tiebreaker. In extra play, Hidayat scored all three points to take the first game 17-14.

In the second set, Santoso stepped up the pace and began to play an up-tempo game. The quickened exchanges seemed to unsettle Hidayat and Santoso raced to an 8-3 advantage. Hidayat countered Santoso's fast pace with patient rallying and he came back with 4 points to close in at 7-8.

Santoso inched ahead 9-7 on a dropshot but Hidayat then tallied twice to tie the score at 9-all. Santoso again pulled away to a 12-9 advantage, but then began to tire and fade as his up-tempo play took its toll on his energy reserves. Hidayat took full advantage of Santoso's loss of footspeed and stroking power. He scored 5 times to reach championship point 14-12 and then once more on a very tight net spinner to win the set and the men's singles title 15-12.

(yyn/ds)