BEIJING: Malaysia’s Wong Choong Hann effectively ended the Olympic career of Athens badminton gold medalist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia when he beat him 21-19 21-16 in the men’s singles round of 32 yesterday.
In another upset, unseeded Japanese duo Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna pulled off “the win of their lives” to eliminate Olympic champions Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen 8-21, 23-21, 21-14 in the women’s doubles.
Later, China’s second seeds Du Jing and Yu Yang crushed Kimuko Ogura and Reiko Shiota of Japan 21-8, 21-5 in the women’s doubles. A noisy home crowd shouted “Kill!” in unison with each Chinese shot, using a common term for a winner in the sport.
Hidayat, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Sunday with cake and more practice, suffered a bout of dengue fever ahead of the Games and was released from hospital just two weeks ago.
“My condition is not 100 percent, but today it was really good play from him,” he told reporters after what he said would probably be his last Olympic match.
“Waiting four years, when I’m 31 or 32, it’s too old for me.” The 31-year-old Wong sits 17th in Badminton World Federation rankings. Taufik is ninth.
In the women’s doubles, the top seeded Chinese women’s pair Yang and Zhang were two points from winning the match at 19-16 in the second game, but committed a series of errors and lost it 23-21. The rattled Yang and Zhang crumbled in the second half of game three, giving up 12 of the final 17 points to go down 14-21.
“This was the biggest win of our lives,” Suetsuna said.
“They are the Olympic champions so even when we had 20 points in the third game we couldn’t take anything for granted. It wasn’t until we got that final point that we could celebrate.” The result takes the Japanese pair to the semifinals and ends hopes of an all-Chinese final.
Denmark’s singles medal dreams suffered yesterday when women’s sixth seed Tine Rasmussen lost in three hard-fought games to unseeded Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia. In the men’s event Kenneth Jonassen lost to South Korea’s Lee Hyunil, who was not seeded but was recognized as a major threat.
“He was the only player nobody wanted to meet,” said Jonassen, who was appearing in his third Olympics.
