Strait Times Susilo tames All-England champ Hafiz But Singaporean faces his nemesis Chen Hong, the world No 1, next in the quarter-finals By Chia Han Keong AGAINST an opponent whom he had beaten twice before, Ronald Susilo was confident, almost cocky. Even though the opponent was reigning All-England champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, the Singaporean managed to outlast the Malaysian 6-15, 15-12, 15-11 in the third round of the Indonesia Open in Batam yesterday. He told Timesport after the match: 'Hafiz is not an opponent whom I fear.' But Susilo is less certain about the outcome of his quarter-final tie today for he faces, once again, his nemesis Chen Hong. The 24-year-old has never beaten the Chinese world No 1 in six tries, the latest being at last week's Singapore Open quarter-finals where he lost 9-15, 1-15. He said: 'It depends on my concentration, whether I can respond to Chen's variety of shots. 'I hope my mind does not go blank against him, like during the second game in the Singapore Open.' Facing the unseeded Hafiz yesterday, sixth seed Susilo felt more assured and stuck to his game plan - retrieving the Malaysian's smashes and dragging the match out to tire him. Still, his strategy could have backfired as Hafiz started out aggressively and even took a 10-2 lead in the second game. Said Susilo: 'I was slow to react early in the match, but I knew that once I could return all his shots, I could control the match.' Indeed, he began to move Hafiz around the court and, sure enough, he rattled off 10 straight points to lead 12-10, taking the second game eventually. An exhausted Hafiz trailed 1-8 in the 'rubber' game before responding furiously to close the gap to 11-13. But, by then, Susilo had enough reserves to close out the match. It was Susilo's third successive win over Hafiz. In June last year, he upset the then-world No 11 15-9, 15-13 at the Malaysian Open. Then, in January, he tamed the Commonwealth Games gold medallist 15-10, 15-7 en route to his first Grand Prix title at the Thailand Open. Said Susilo: 'He has definitely improved since the last time we faced each other, but his style is still the same. 'It is just a matter of defending his smashes and minimising my mistakes.' Earlier, Chen had defeated Hafiz's elder brother, Roslin Hashim, 15-9, 15-10 in their third-round match. Indonesia's fifth seed Taufik Hidayat remained on course to retain his title by beating China's Bao Chunlai 15-4, 15-6. In the women's singles, China's world No 1 Zhang Ning defeated Japan's Miho Tanaka 11-4, 13-10 to advance to the quarter-finals. The Singapore Open champion continued her imperious form; she still has to drop a game in the tournament. Susilo is the only Singaporean shuttler remaining. On Wednesday night, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Li Li was eliminated in the second round by South Korea's Jun Jae Youn, 13-10, 6-11, 2-11. The mixed doubles pair of Li Yujia and Hendri Saputra were also knocked out yesterday, losing 15-11, 4-15, 7-15 to South Korea's Kim Yong Hyun and Lee Hyo Jung. The duo, paired up only since the Singapore Open, had won their first-round match against Japan's Tadashi Ohtsuka and Shizuka Yamamoto. So how does China-born Yujia communicate with Indonesia-born Hendri, since both know very little English? Said Yujia in Mandarin: 'We learned some simple English instructions, like 'attack the net' or 'use drop shots'. 'It has worked so far, and we have been improving our rapport steadily.' Meanwhile, Singapore will send only two men's doubles pairs - Donny Prasetyo/Wandri Saputra and Denny Setiawan/Hendri - to next week's Malaysia Open in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Singapore Badminton Association executive director Jacqueline Lim explained that the other players needed a rest after playing two Opens in a row, especially with the forthcoming Singapore Pools Asian Satellite Badminton Championships starting on Sept 10. She said: 'Four tournaments in four weeks will be too tiring for the players, and they would prefer to defend their Asian Satellite titles instead of entering for the Malaysia Open.' Susilo and Li Li are the defending singles champions for the local tournament. Twin brothers Donny and Denny won the doubles title last year.
