BEIJING, 15 May 2005 — Indonesia swept Denmark 3-0 to clinch a place in the Sudirman Cup final against either China or South Korea who meet later at the world mixed team badminton championships. Indonesia got off to the perfect start in the key mixed doubles rubber with Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir handing down a comprehensive 15-4, 15-7 thrashing of Jens Eriksen and Kamilla Juhl, who were unable to find any rhythm.
In the tense second rubber Athens Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat outfought former world No. 1 Peter Gade to clinch the first set 15-10 despite his winning smash clearly landing over the sideline.
An enraged Gade slammed his racket down and complained to the linesman and the umpire but to no avail. From then on he was unable to regain his composure and made uncharacteristic errors that allowed his opponent to take the second set 15-3 to win the match.
Camilla Sorensen, who was promoted to the semi-final line-up after teammate Tine Rasmussen ruptured her Achilles’ tendon against South Korea on Thursday, won the opening set of the women’s singles 11-3 against Fransica Hari. But despite the vocal support from the crowd at Beijing’s Capital Gymnasium, she lost the second set 8-11. Hari then seized on her momentum to take the decisive final set 11-2 and clinch Indonesia’s spot in the final.
Denmark head coach Steen Pedersen was gracious in defeat, despite “the number of line calls that were questionable”.
“We saw the mixed doubles as very much the key match,” he said. “We couldn’t get going and that affected the rest of the team, but we just have to admit that the Indonesian team played much better than us today and deserved to get to the finals.”
Indonesian head coach Christian Hadinata, surprised at the ease of victory, said it would be a much sterner test on Sunday, most probably against China, who are favorites to lift Sudirman Cup for the fifth time.
