BIRMINGHAM, England, 1 August 2003 — Wong Choon Hann, the former Commonwealth champion, upset the seedings when he beat fourth-seeded Anders Boesen in straight games to reach the quarterfinals of the world badminton championships.
The Malaysian trounced the Dane 15-6, 15-6 to earn a meeting with Asian champion Sony Kwi Kuncoro of Indonesia.
Wong’s ranking has slipped because he has played only two tournaments in 2003, but late last year he beat the world number one Chen Hong to win the China Open.
Wong’s airborne attacks were delivered with great speed and deception and he scored many winners both with fast overhead drops and sudden smashes. Boesen took the first three points and made a mini-recovery from 1-10 to 6-13 near the end, but his attempts to survive the aerial battering always seemed doomed to failure.
Kuncoro, who has the SARS-related postponement of the tournament to thank for being able to get into the men’s singles, overcame his former compatriot Ronald Susilo, now of Singapore, 15-9, 15-13.
Susilo, who came back from a game and 4-8 down to beat former world champion Peter Rasmussen the day before, threatened to do something similar after being 2-11 down in the second game this time.
Kuncoro, the sixth seed, had been keeping the pace high and pressurising Susilo and appeared to be wearing the tenth seed down at that stage. But Susilo’s brilliant defense against a Kuncoro jump smash to win a rally at the net inspired him. Former Indonesian star Mia Audina Tjiptawan, a Uber Cup hero for her country of birth but for several years a Dutch international, outplayed Germany’s Petra Overzier 11-2, 11-4 to reach the women’s singles quarterfinals.
