Indonesians Making Short Work of Competition:
Badminton is a fast game. The Indonesians are making it even faster. In men's singles action tonight, third-seeded Heryanto ARBI (INA) won his first match of the tournament 15-5, 15-4, defeating India's Deepankar BHATTACHARYA. The first game lasted only 9 minutes. Fellow Indonesian Allen BUDI KASUMA, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in men's singles and the No. 6 seed in the tournament, won his second game in 8 minutes. He defeated Sweden's Tomas JOHANSSON 15-5, 15-1. Earlier in the day, the third member of the Indonesian men's singles badminton team, top-seeded Joko SUPRIANTO, also won handily, 15-1, 15-5.
The other seeded players competing tonight also won. No. 4 DONG Jiong of the People's Republic of China rolled over the Netherlands' Joris VAN SOERLAND, 15-9, 15-4, and seventh-seeded Rashid SIDEK of Malaysia put away the Russian Federation's Andreij ANTROPOV, 15-11, 15-7.
Korea's LEE Kwang-Jin, the tournament's eighth seed, had a little bit of trouble with Great Britain's Darren HALL. LEE won the first game 15-7, but HALL played him closely from the beginning of the second game. HALL took the lead and built it to 10-7. After exchanging a number of serves, LEE tied the game at 11-11, beginning a rally that would end HALL's Olympic competition. The game finished 15-11.
In other matches of the evening, China's YU Lizhi and SUN Jun defeated Jaimie DAWSON of Canada and KIM Hak-Kyun of Korea, respectively. YU won 15-10, 15-11 and SUN won 15-5, 17-14. Canada's Iain SYDIE advanced to the third round after beating Switzerland's Thomas WAPP with a pair of 15-7 victories. LIU En-Horng of Chinese Taipei came on strong in the second game to win the only three-game match of the evening, 8-15, 15-0, 15-2.
In Friday's third round, SYDIE will face LEE, SUN will face BUDI KASUMA, SIDEK will face YU, LIU will face ARBI and DONG will face Denmark's Thomas STUER-LAURIDSEN.
"I was a little careful in the first set because I didn't want to make a mistake," said BUDI KASUMA. "ARBI took the pressure off by playing first. Here competition is more immediate, not step-by-step."
Favorites Advance as Men's Doubles First Round Wraps Up
The final three men's doubles first round matches ended without any surprises this afternoon. Korea's HA Tae Kwon and KANG Kyung Jin, ranked 10th in the world by the International Badminton Federation, dominated Thailand's Siripong SIRIPOOL and Khunakorn SUDHISODHI, winning the match 15-8, 15-5.
Denmark's 11th-ranked pair of Michael SOGAARD and Henrik SVARRER and Great Britain's Simon ARCHER and Chris HUNT, ranked 12th, had more trouble silencing their opponents. SOGAARD and SVARRER took three games to defeat Korea's KIM Dong Moon and YOO Yong Sung, winning 15-11, 5-15, 18-15. ARCHER and HUNT did the job in two close games, defeating Hong Kong's CHAN Siu Kwong and HE Tim 15-11, 15-12. HUNT broke more than CHAN and HE's Olympic dreams, he also broke three rackets during the match.
When the men's doubles second round action begins on Saturday, SOGAARD and SVARRER will play the toughest competition in the tournament, top-seeded and top-ranked Rexy MAINAKY and Ricky SUBAGJA of Indonesia. HA and KANG will face fifth-seeded Jon HOLST-CHRISTENSEN and Thomas LUND of Denmark, and ARCHER and HUNT will go on to play Thailand's Pramote TEERAWIWATANA and Sakrapee THONGSARI, seeded eighth.
"We weren't confident," said SOGAARD. "We thought it could go either way. Now we have a tough game against the No. 1 seeds. We lost to them in the Japan Open this year, but it was very close, so we have a chance."
Dutch and Danes Roll Into Final Second-Round Slots
Eline COENE and Erica VAN DEN HEUVEL of the Netherlands and Lisbet STUER-LAURIDSEN and Marlene THOMSEN of Denmark advanced to the second round of women's badminton doubles competition, filling out the bracket. COENE and VAN DEN HEUVEL defeated Great Britain's Kelly MORGAN and Joanne MUGGERIDGE, 15-10, 15-5. STUER-LAURIDSEN and THOMSEN, seeded eighth in the tournament, rolled to a 15-4, 15-1 victory over the United States' only doubles pair, Linda FRENCH and Erica VON HEILAND.
STUER-LAURIDSEN and THOMSEN next face Korea's CHUNG Jae Hee and PARK Soo Yun in Saturday's second round, while COENE and VAN DEN HEUVEL will face CHEN Ying and PENG Xingyong of the People's Republic of China.
Men's Singles Second Round Begins; Seeded Players Advance Easily
The second round of men's Olympic badminton singles began with the man everyone was waiting to see, top-seeded Joko SUPRIANTO of Indonesia. SUPRIANTO performed as expected, completely dominating Finland's Pontus JANTTI, 15-1, 15-5.
Two other top seeds in the tournament played their first match in the afternoon session, both advancing easily. Second-seeded Poul-Erik HOYER-LARSEN of Denmark, considered by many to be the only non-Asian with a serious chance at medaling, defeated Ukraine's Vladislav DRUZCHENKO, 15-7, 15-6. Korea's PARK Sung Woo, the fifth seed in the competition, rolled over CHANG Jeng-Shyong of Chinese Taipei, 15-5, 15-3.
In other singles matches, Malaysia's ONG Ewe Hock defeated Jeroen VAN DIJK of the Netherlands in the closest singles match of the session, 15-11, 15-10; Sweden's Jens OLSSON knocked out Great Britain's Peter KNOWLES, 15-11, 15-9; Fumihiko MACHIDA of Japan eliminated Thailand's Kitipon KITIKUL, 15-7, 15-11 and Denmark's Thomas STUER-LAURIDSEN defeated Austria's Hannes FUCHS, 15-12, 15-5.
"I'm very happy that the first match is easy to handle," said SUPRIANTO. "It's like a warm-up for me, to move to the second match."
HELBER/KECK Defeat AXELSSON/JONSSON
In a thrilling upset, the men's badminton doubles pair of Michael HELBER and Michael KECK from Germany defeated the ninth-ranked team of Peter AXELSSON and Par-Gunnar JONSSON (SWE), 15-8, 15-13. AXELSSON and JONSSON came on strong in the second game, building an early 8-5 lead. HELBER and KECK then battled back, pushing the score to 12-9 and never relinquishing the lead.
In other close matches, the Russian Federation's team of Nikolaij ZUEV and Andreij ANTROPOV defeated Great Britain's Nick PONTING and Julian ROBERTSON, 18-13, 7-15, 15-4, and Jens ERIKSEN and Christian JAKOBSEN of Denmark beat Jaimie DAWSON and Darryl YUNG of Canada, 15-10, 17-14.
In other matches, SOO Beng Kiang and TAN Kim Her of Malaysia, ranked 13th in the world, rolled over Canada's Anil KAUL and Iain SYDIE, 15-7, 15-3. GE Cheng and TAO Xiaoqiang (CHN), ranked 16th, made quick work of Darren HALL and Peter KNOWLES (, 15-2, 15-3; and Peter BLACKBURN (GBR) and Paul STAIGHT (AUS) thumped Stephan BEEHARRY and Eddy CLARISSE of Mauritius, 15-3, 15-8.
No Surprises in Women's Doubles
All of the favorites advanced in Thursday morning's women's badminton doubles competition. The most exciting match of the morning was between the 10th-ranked pair, KIM Mee Hyang and KIM Shin Young of Korea and 19th-ranked Aikiko MIYAMURA and Aiko MIYAMURA of Japan. Through the beginning of the first game, it looked like an easy victory for KIM and KIM. The Korean pair was up 11-4 before the Japanese sisters came alive, taking the lead at 12-11. KIM and KIM held their opponents, and won the game, 15-12. In the second game, KIM and KIM were forced to come from behind. They tied the game at 6-6 and again at 13-13, when the game was set. They scored the final five points to win 18-13.
CHEN Ying and PENG Xingyong (CHN) won in an up-and-down match against Ukraine's Victoria EVTOUSHENKO and Elena NOSDRAN, 15-2, 11-15, 15-1. CHEN and PENG committed 26 errors, compared to just 12 in the other two games of the match combined.
Ann JORGENSEN and Lotte OLSEN (DEN) had a tough time putting away Elena RYBKHINA and Marina YAKUSHEVA (RUS), defeating the pair, 15-13, 15-10.
The other matches of the morning were won easily by the higher-ranked pair. The most notable of these were Katrin SCHMIDT and Kerstin UBBEN 's (GER) trouncing of Mauritius's Martine DE SOUZA and Marie-Josephe JEAN-PIERRE, 15-1, 15-2 Tomomi MATSUO and Masako SAKAMOTO's (JPN) thumped Diana KOLEVA and Neli NEDJALKOVA (BUL) 15-0, 15-4. The team of MATSUO and SAKAMOTO ranked only six places above KOLEVA and NEDJALKOVA.
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