SURABAYA (Indonesia), Sept 1: Local wonder Taufik Hidayat played some of his best badminton Sunday to beat Chen Hong of China in the men’s final of the 170,000-dollar Indonesian Open in Surabaya.
There were no seats left in the stadium, which seemed more packed than its official capacity of 2,000, as spectators squeezed in to cheer for their hero.
The crowd was well rewarded after Taufik Hidayat put on a real show to master his opponent Chen Hong, crowned Singapore Open champion a week ago after winning the All England event earlier this year.
In the first game the Indonesian and the Chinese played evenly except at the net, obviously Hidayat’s best weapon against the ever-smashing Chinese.
When Chen was leading 13-11, the lights went off for few minutes, giving the two players a forced rest on their side-court chairs.
After the power was back, Taufik was fired up to finish 15-12.
The Chinese reacted with deep smashes in the second game, but once again, the Indonesian was carried by his home public and brought back incredible points, thanks to a sharp back hand defence.
He won on his third match point at 15-12 with the audience going wild.
It is Taufik Hidayat’s first win in a Grand Prix event this year with his last being in Singapore in the summer of 2001.
It was also an emotional day for fellow Indonesian Minarti Timur, who won the mixed doubles trophy in what was her farewell to badminton.
Timur and partner Bambang Supriyanto outplayed compatriots Nova Widianto and Vita Marisa to win the title.
The women’s singles event was won by Gong Ruina who beat compatriot Zhang Ning 11-6, 11-7. The World Champion kept the shuttle back in the court while her senior opponent committed too many unforced errors.
China also clinched the women’s doubles with Gao Ling and Huang Sui beating their Thai challengers, the 63-ranked Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisarn and Saralee Thungthongkam, 11-4, 11-5.
The men’s doubles went to Korea’s Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Yong Sung who beat Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian, Indonesians who were representing England.
In spite of their new residency in Europe, the latter got the public’s support but it was not good enough to fight the Korean’s super powerful smashes which took them to a win of 15-10, 15-11.—AFP