BIRMINGHAM, England, 31 July 2003 — Roslin and Hafiz Hashim became the first brothers to face each other in a world championship when the younger Hafiz was beaten 15-11, 15-8 in the second round — even though he is the reigning All-England champion.
The contest was played in a relaxed atmosphere, with the urgency of normal competition understandably subdued, but both brothers overcame their misgivings about the situation to provide decent entertainment for the crowd.
The result however was only in doubt up till about 11-11 in the first game after which Roslin, slightly the quicker and more aggressive, began to pull away.
Afterward he came round the net to embrace his younger brother, and the two men left the court with their arms around each other.
It was an especially bittersweet moment for Roslin, who would not have gained entry to the world championships but for the SARS virus which caused its postponement for ten weeks.
Hafiz empathized, he admitted, with the difficult feelings of the younger of the Williams sisters, though there were no obviously awkward emotions between the Malaysians siblings.
Roslin next plays Lee Hyun-il, the eighth seeded Korean, but later there was bad news for four Koreans in the men’s doubles.
Ha Tae-Kwon has pulled out with a bad back which means his top-seeded partnership with Kim Dong-moon will not now have a chance to win the world title back.
And Yoo-Yong-sung has withdrawn with a bad elbow, which means his second seeded partnership with Lee Dong-soo has had to pull out of the tournament too. It offers a chance of two Danish pairs to become world champions. Denmark’s former world singles champion, Peter Rasmussen, was however beaten.
Susilo’s 8-15, 15-13, 15-5 win was also a stunning blow to one of the few serious European contenders and brought to an end Rasmussen’s outside hopes of winning back the world title he sensationally won six years ago in Glasgow.
The Indonesian-born player next plays a former compatriot, SunyDwi Kuncoro, who came through much more comfortably, by 15-9, 15-3 against Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal.
Kuncoro, the sixth seed, will be slight favorite to make the last eight, though like the elder Roslin brother he would not have been in the tournament at all but for the ten-week SARS-related postponement.
Meanwhile the two singles favorites progressed safely to the third round. China’s Chen Hong overcame the German Jens Roch 15-15, 15-1 in the men’s and now plays Hidetaka Yamada, the 11th seed from Japan. Hongkong’s Wang Chen beat the Russian Elena Sukhareva 11-8, 11-5 in the women’s singles and goes through to meet the unseeded Korean Jun Jae-Youn.
