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Asia Cup: World Champion Fails Again And China Loses

** 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) **

November 13, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Badminton men's singles world champion Sun Jun of China lost for the second day in a row at the Asia Cup men's team championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and the Chinese contingent followed him down the tubes as they were beaten 3 matches to none by Indonesia in one of the semifinal team contests played today.

Sun was defeated by world number three Taufik Hidayat 12-15 and 14-15 in the opening singles match. Indonesian men's doubles aces Tony Gunawan and Chandra Wijaya then whipped Yu Jinhao and Zhang Jun 15-4 and 15-6 to seal the team victory for defending champion Indonesia.

In the meaningless second singles match, Hendrawan played an almost error-free game and defeated Chen Hong 15-7 and 15-4.

In the Sun Jun-Hidayat match, the two contestants battled on even terms for most of the first set but the Indonesian was the more consistent player and took the set 15-12.

In the second set, Sun Jun pulled away to a good-sized lead at 12-6 but the Indonesian rallied to knot the match up at 13-all as Sun began to labor. The world champion broke out of the tie to reach set point at 14-13 but Hidayat foiled his attempt to claim the second game and then scored on his service turn to reach set and match point.

Surprisingly, Sun who had the option to declare a three-point tiebreak chose to gamble and to play a single-point tiebreak instead. His gamble failed as Hidayat scored to take the match.

According to a member of the Chinese delegation, Sun has been playing with a back injury and was not able to do the bending and twisting that top-class badminton strokes call for without feeling pain. Sun has also not been able to train properly because of the injury.

In the other semifinal team contest, Malaysia surprised Group A winner Korea and won 2 matches to 1.

The Malaysians took both singles matches to claim a spot in tomorrow's final. Jason Wong beat Ahn Jae Chang 15-12, 4-15 and 15-4, and Ismail Saman clinched the team victory with a 15-12 and 15-10 triumph over Park Tae Sang.

Men's doubles world champions Ha Tae Kwon and Kim Dong Moon defeated Chew Choon Eng and Rosman Razak 15-10 and 15-5 for the sole Korean point in the team contest.

In tomorrow's action, Indonesia and Malaysia will tangle for the Asia Cup championship while China and Korea will play off for third and fourth places. In group play earlier, Indonesia had beaten Malaysia 3 matches to none and Korea had defeated China 2-1.

(yyna/ds)