TheStar BANGKOK: A pumped-up Mohd Hafiz Hashim defeated Singaporean Ronald Susilo for the first time in his badminton career to reach the men's singles final of the US80,000 Thailand Open here yesterday. Hafiz bounced back from the brink of defeat to eliminate Susilo 13-15, 17-15, 15-9 in a 72-minute semi-final match. The Malaysian had lost to the Athens Olympic Games quarter-finalist in all their three previous meetings - 2003 Indonesian Open (third round), 2003 Thailand Open (semi-finals) and 2002 Malaysian Open (second round). Hafiz's win yesterday earned him his third appearance in a final of an Open tournament for the year. He lost to China's Lin Dan in the German Open but bounced back to beat Denmark's Peter Gade-Christensen to win the Swiss Open title two weeks ago. Hafiz, who trains under former international Misbun Sidek, will take on top seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark in the final. Yesterday, the 31-year-old Dane dashed the hopes of the local crowd when he defeated defending champion Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 15-10, 15-6 in a 63-minute encounter. Hafiz, the 2003 All-England champion, will start off as the underdog in the final against Jonassen, as he lost to the Dane in their last two meetings. Jonassen won in the semi-finals of the Singapore Open in November last year and in the third round of the Korean Open in January. And if Hafiz gets the better of world No. 4 Jonassen it will certainly help him break into the top eight in the world rankings which will boost his seedings for the World Championships in August in Los Angeles. Currently, Hafiz is ranked ninth in the world. Malaysia's challenge however ended in the men's doubles when both Choong Tan Fook-Chew Choon Eng and Gan Teik Chai-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif crashed out in the semi-finals. Tan Fook-Choon Eng went down tamely 6-15, 7-15 in just 30 minutes to South Koreans Jung Jae-sung-Lee Jae-jin, who continued to make their mark as the new threat in the men's doubles. Youngsters Teik Chai-Zakry put up a better fight but it was not good enough against the top seeds Jonas Rasmussen-Lars Paaske of Denmark. The Malaysians lost 7-15, 12-15 in 50 minutes. n Men's singles: Mohd Hafiz Hashim (Mas) bt Ronald Susilo (Sin) 13-15, 17-15, 15-9; Kenneth Jonassen (Den) bt Boonsak Ponsana (Tha) 15-10, 15-6. n Men's doubles: Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen (Den) bt Gan Teik Chai-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif 15-7, 15-12; Jung Jae-sung-Lee Jae-jin (Kor) bt Choong Tan Fook-Chew Choon Eng 15-6, 15-7. n Women's singles: Xu Huaiwen (Ger) bt Pi Hongyan (Fra) 11-3, 8-11, 13-12; Yao Jie (Ned) bt Kanako Yonekura (Jpn) 11-7, 11-4. n Women's doubles: Zhang Dan-Zhang Yawen (Chn) bt Jiang Yanmei-Li Yujia (Chn) 15-10, 15-3; Lee Hyo-jung-Lee Kyung-won (Kor) bt T. Saralee-C. Sathinee (Tha) 12-15, 15-8, 15-11. n Mixed doubles: Thomas Laybourn-Kamilla Rytter Juhl (Den) bt Sudket Prapakamol-T. Saralee (Tha) 15-10, 14-17, 17-16; Lee Jae-jin-Lee Hyo-jung (Kor) bt Xie Zhongbo-Zhang Yawen (Chn) 15-11, 15-4.
My Dear Ants. Did you notice that the Star sports reporter fumbled with his caption when he stated "Hafiz tames Indon..." and then in his main story he corrected by saying that "Hafiz defeated Singaporean Ronald Susilo..." Either he is up to mischief or he has a fuzzy head and his editor was not alert enough to point out his mistake. Make no mistake about it, Hafiz deserves his victory and I'm actually pleased that Ronald has gone this far and defeated even the No. 2 seed Xia, after laying off for 6 months due to injury. Ronald's record with the Chinese has been impressive in that he has defeated four of their best: Lin Dan, Bao, Xia and Chen Yu. Only Chen Hong has been his stumblingblock! Hafiz is showing great form and he went on to beat Kenneth Jonnasen in straight games in the finals yesterday, thus avenging his defeat at last year's Singapore Open. And so is Ronald, who will defend his Japan Open crown just around the corner.
The Star Editor always have mistakes in their editing. Maybe what he meant was Indonesian Ronald Susilo but Singaporean by citizenship.
Thank God, you're not the reporter. However, if you put it as ex-Indonesian, then you can be forgiven!
Take it easy Loh...there is no mischief involved. Ronald is Singaporean as far as many is concerned, but most of all he must believe so himself. Editors make mistakes from time to time, especially if you have a 2 our dateline, and the dateline is at 6am in the morning.
Yeah good thing i'm not a reporter.. too many mistakes.. i may get fired! ehhehe.. anyway we will see how he perform in the next JP OPEN.
