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German Open: Russian-Swede Surprises Top Seed

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG Badminton Products and their Western Canada agents - MAAKL Corporation, Saint Albert, Alberta (Tel 780-458-2026/ Fax 780-459-8891) **

October 9, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Marina Andrievskaia, the former Russian national team player who moved to Sweden in 1996, surprised top seed Zhou Mi of China in one of today's women's singles semifinals. The Swede who has been in the doldrums since she injured a knee in February last year had dropped the opening game 5-11 but came back with a determined effort to take the second 11-8. She then outsteadied Zhou in a tightly contested decider 11-9.

In the other women's singles semifinal, qualifier Tang Chunyu of China trounced second-seed Yasuko Mizui of Japan 11-1 and 11-6. Tang had won the Dutch Open championship last week in her international tournament debut but still had to go through qualifying at the German Open because she was not yet on the world ranking lists.

Following are the results of the semifinals in the other events (number before player's name indicates seeding).

Men's Singles
Pullela Gopichand (India) beat James Chua (Malaysia) 16-17, 15-0, 15-6
Xia Xuanze (China) beat Xiao Hui (Germany) 15-3, 15-5

Men's Doubles
1-Peter Axelsson and Par-Gunnar Jonsson (Sweden) beat Chew Choon Eng and Rosman Razak (Malaysia) 15-13, 11-15, 15-9
2-Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah (Malaysia) beat Ade Lukas and Santoso Sugiharjo (Indonesia) 15-12, 17-16

Women's Doubles
1-Gao Ling and Qin Yiyuan (China) beat Tang Chunyu and Zhou Mi (China) 15-6, 15-1
Chen Lin and Jiang Xuelian (China) beat 2-Yoshiko Iwata and Haruko Matsuda (Japan) 15-6, 15-4

Mixed Doubles
Janek Roos and Marlene Thomsen (Germany) beat Vladislav Druzchenko and Victoria Evtoushenko (Ukraine) 15-12, 15-6
Jane Bramsen and Lars Paaske (Denmark) beat Yuzo Kubota and Haruko Matsuda (Japan) 15-5, 15-5

(yyn/mg)