Indonesia & China have easy outings

By Prakash Padukone

There were no major upsets on the third day of the Thomas and Uber Cup final rounds currently in progress at the Stadium Putra in Kualalumpur on Saturday evening as all the seeded teams sailed through smoothly in their respective group matches.

In the Thomas Cup group B' encounter, top-seeded Indonesia had no difficulty in putting it across England while its traditional rival China scored an equally emphatic victory over Sweeden. With this victory, Indonesia and China have won both their group encounters and will now clash on Tuesday to decide the group winner.

Similarly in the Uber Cup, Denmark assured itself of a berth in the semifinals when it overcame a tenacious Indonesia 4-1. This was Denmark's second straight victory in group A. In spite of this defeat Indnoesian girls are likely to qualify behind Denmark from this group as they had already beaten Japan on the opening day.

Of course, Indonesia must win their last group tie against Malaysia on Monday to move ahead. In the other group match played this evening Japan scored a narrow 3-2 victory over Malaysia. This result may not affect the overall standing unless of course either of these two teams beat Denmark or Indonesia.

Compared to yesterday, the stadium wore a deserted look this evening. Barring a few flag-waving and slogan-shouting Indonesian supporters there were not many spectators in the stadium. It has been a double tragedy of sorts for the Malaysians. Yesterday, India defeated it 2- 1 in the Asian Junior hockey semifinals in the adjoining stadium whereas here in the Thomas Cup, it was handed a shock 2-3 defeat by the Koreans. The sport-loving public of Malaysia is yet to recover from these two defeats. However, Malaysia still has a chance to advance to the semifinals provided it beats Denmark with a convincing margin on Tuesday.

In the Indonesia-England tie, world No. 2 Hendrawan had a trying time against England No. 1 Colin Haughton especially in the second game. Then Simon Archer and N. Robertson, who scored the only victory for England in its previous match against China, gave a tough fight to the world No. 1 pair of Wijaya and Tony Gunawan. The English duo argued repeatedly with the umpire, but the Indonesians managed to hang on without losing their concentration and won in straight games. Taufik Hidayat, again playing the second singles for Indonesia completed the formalities by overcoming Mark Constable.

China fielded the same team that played against England on the opening day. It preferred to rest the injured Sun Jun. His fitness still remains a mystery and one is not sure what strategy China will adopt when it takes on Indonesia. It basically has two options - to continue with the existing singles players or to rest one of the two youngsters Xia or Ji and move up Chen Hong to play the second singles and bring in Sun Jun for the third singles.

In the Uber Cup, world No. 1 Camilla Martin, looking more composed than ever before, took the Indonesian opponent Lidya in her stride. On the contrary, the first doubles match was a long drawn affair. Eliza and Lomban started aggressively against their Danish opponents, Helene & Rikke, ranked fifth in the world. Both the Indonesian girls are very strong and Lomban, in particular, has an extremely effective leap smash-one of the few girls to do so. It is not easy for the girls to jump as high as Lomban does unless one is gifted with strong legs.

However, as the match progressed the Indonesian duo could not maintain the tempo and slow down in the next two games. The Danish girls took full advantage of their height and build to emerge deserving victors. World No. 8 Mette Sorensen had a few anxious moments in her match against Angelina of Indonesia. The Dane put her vast experience to good use and prevailed over her opponent in the end.

The results:

Thomas Cup Group B: China beat Sweden 5-0 Xia Xuanze beat Thomas Johansson 15-4, 15-10, Jun Zhang & Jinhao yu beat Jonsson & Axelsson 15-7, 15-4, Ji Xinpeng beat Wengberg 15-9, 15-9, Zhang & Liu Yong beat Andersson & Bergstrom 15-4, 15-4; Chen Hong bt Hagberg 15-10, 15-12.

Indonesia beat England 5-0, Hendrawan beat Colin Haughton 15-8, 15-12, Wijaya & Gunawan bt Archer & Robert son 15-12, 15-5, Taufik bt Constable 15-6, 15-5, Antonius & Sigit bt Clark & Sullivan 15-6, 15-9. Mainaky bt M. Edge 15-3, 15-5.

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