- Reuters
- , Monday August 11 2008
(Adds Wong's age and ranking, paragraph 7)
By John Ruwitch
BEIJING, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann
effectively ended the Olympic career of Athens badminton gold
medallist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia when he beat him 21-19
21-16 in the men's singles round of 32 on Monday.
In another upset, unseeded Japanese duo Miyuki Maeda and
Satoko Suetsuna pulled off "the win of their lives" to
eliminate Olympic champions Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen 8-21
23-21 21-14 in the women's doubles.
Later, China's second seeds Du Jing and Yu Yang crushed
Kimuko Ogura and Reiko Shiota of Japan 21-8 21-5 in the women's
doubles. A noisy home crowd shouted "Kill!" in unison with each
Chinese shot, using a common term for a winner in the sport.
Hidayat, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Sunday with
cake and more practice, suffered a bout of Dengue Fever ahead
of the Games and was released from hospital just two weeks ago.
"My condition is not 100 percent, but today it was really
good play from him," he told reporters after what he said would
probably be his last Olympic match.
"Waiting four years, when I'm 31 or 32, it's too old for
me."
The 31-year-old Wong sits 17th in Badminton World
Federation rankings. Taufik is ninth.
In the women's doubles, the top seeded Chinese women's pair
Yang and Zhang were two points from winning the match at 19-16
in the second game, but committed a series of errors and lost
it 23-21.
The rattled Yang and Zhang crumbled in the second half of
game three, giving up 12 of the final 17 points to go down
14-21.
"This was the biggest win of our lives," Suetsuna said.
"They are the Olympic champions so even when we had 20 points
in the third game we couldn't take anything for granted. It
wasn't until we got that final point that we could celebrate."
The result takes the Japanese pair to the semifinals and
ends hopes of an all-Chinese final.
Denmark's singles medal dreams suffered on Monday when
women's sixth seed Tine Rasmussen lost in three hard-fought
games to unseeded Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia. In the
men's event Kenneth Jonassen lost to South Korea's Lee Hyunil,
who was not seeded but was recognised as a major threat.
"He was the only player nobody wanted to meet," said
Jonassen, who was appearing in his third Olympics.
(Editing by Keith Weir)