BIRMINGHAM, England, 2 August 2003 — Roslin Hashim, who had vowed to win the title for the brother he beat on Wednesday, fell in the quarterfinals of the world championships here yesterday.
The former world number one from Malaysia’s eventful return to the centre stage came to an end when he was beaten 15-7, 15-10 by the unseeded but ominously effective Chinese player Bao Chunlai.
Roslin did not originally qualify for these world championships and only got in to the draw after a ten-week delay for the SARS virus decided a few players from Australia and the Far East not to make the long journey to Britain.
The last moment entry led to the first ever meeting between two brothers in a world championship with the younger Hafiz Hashim, who won the All-England Open champion in this same arena five months ago, and then to a gut-wrenching 104-minute win with Korea’s Lee Hyun-il in the longest contest of the tournament so far.
After that Roslin repeated his intention to win the title for Hafiz (“because I know he could have won it”), but there rarely seemed a great chance of that against the tall, relaxed-looking Bao.
Bao had beaten the third-seeded Taufik Hidayat by tying him up at the net, now he beat Roslin by taking the attack to him with a variety which was hard to contain.
Roslin fought hard to prolong the contest in the second game, leading 5-3 and then 9-8, but from 10-all he proved unstoppable. Several times Roslin was sent diving around the floor, trying to block and flick the shuttle back, but to little effect. A serve-and-kill combination got Bao to 11-10, another attack followed up at the net got him to 12-10, a third kill, sudden and stunning, got him to 13-10 and a spectacular jump smash, taken round-the-head and launched for a winner, took him to match point.
With two former All-England champions, Chen Hong and Xia Xuanze, also hoping to reach the semifinals, it opened up the prospect of a Chinese player winning a men’s singles title last won by a compatriot (Sun Jun) in 1999.
