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| December 23, 2001 | Sunday | Shawwal 7, 1422 |
S. Korean, Thailand clash in final
HONG KONG, Dec 22: Top seed Lee Hyung-Taik of South Korea and number two seed Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand cruised into the final of the Asian Championships Saturday to vie for a place in next month’s Australian Open.
Lee notched up a 6-3, 6-3 semi-final victory over unseeded Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan while Paradorn trounced Takao Suzuki of Japan 6-1, 6-3 to reach the last stage of the $60,000 tournament.
Meanwhile, in a women’s semifinal, seventh seeded Korean Jeon Mi-ra stunned top seed Wynne Prakusya of Indonesia 6-4, 6-4 to set up a clash with compatriot Cho Yoon-jeong.
Lee forced the pace from the start, putting Lu under tremendous pressure as early as the fourth game when the Taiwanese number two fought back bravely to save three break points and hold his serve.
Lu battled gamely and was unlucky when a backhand volley spun on top of the net before dropping on his side to hand Lee a break of serve and a 5-3 lead.
A sweet forehand volley in the next game gave Lee the first set and the Korean kept Lu on the defensive with booming serves and punishing forehands.
Lee broke Lu with a glorious dipping backhand pass to take a 3-1 lead and sealed the match with another thumping forehand.
“I was just trying to hold my serve and put pressure on his serve. I was quite comfortable and so it looked like I was cruising. I knew I had the upper hand and so I relaxed,” the Korean said.
Asked if was looking to avenge a loss to Paradorn in a Bangkok challenger event two weeks ago, Lee said with a smile: “Yes, definitely!”
The Thai number one was in unstoppable form against Suzuki breaking him in the first game of the match and never facing a break point on his serve. He broke Suzuki twice more to take the first set 6-1.
Paradorn, determined to avenge a loss to Suzuki in Davis Cup play in February, continued to blast down huge serves in the second set to keep the Japanese serve and volley specialist away from the net.
The second set swung in the Thai’s favour when a Suzuki backhand volley was called out on game point to give Paradorn a 3-2 lead. Suzuki exclaimed “no way” and disputed the call but to no avail. Clealy rattled, Suzuki dropped his serve in the next game and Paradorn ruthlessly closed out the match.
The affable Paradorn said: “I hit the ball good today. He kept coming to the net but I was able to hit good passing shots.
“I just concentrated on getting the first serve in, but when I missed I still hit deep second serves to prevent him getting into the net.
“I’m playing well, but so is he (Lee) so it’ll be a good final.”
Korean Jeon Mi-ra, ranked 271 in the world, shocked top seed Prakusya to march onto the women’s final.
The harder hitting Jeon showed no signs of nerves as she controlled the baseline rallies to take the first set 6-4. World number 89 Prakusya called on the trainer at 2-1 in the second set to attend to a hip injury which appeared to hamper her movement.
However, Jeon showed no mercy, and although the Indonesian broke her at 5-3, she immediately broke back to seal the match.
“Although her (Prakusya) world ranking is higher than mine, her shots are not as powerful,” Jeon said. “Her forehand is stronger than her backhand, so I was able to exploit that weakness.”
Jeon now faces good friend and hitting partner Cho, who defeated Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan 6-4, 6-2 in the other semi-final on Friday. “We know each other’s game very well, so it’ll be interesting tomorrow,” Jeon said.
The winners of the men’s and women’s events at the Hong Kong tournament gain entry to the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season which starts in Melbourne on Jan 14.
—AFP
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