THOMAS CUP SF – Korea’s Cup only half-full

Team Korea couldn’t capitalize on their historic win over China with another finals appearance, let alone a title, as Indonesia’s Pratama/Suwardi dealt the final blow to give Indonesia a 3-1 victory.

By Don Hearn.  Photos: Yohan Nonotte for Badmintonphoto (live)

It has happened three times before that the team that performed the Herculean feat of ousting China has been unable to make the Cup theirs.  The last time was in 2002, when Malaysia beat China in the semis and lost the Cup to Indonesia.  In fact, a similar thing happened at the Asian Games men’s team competition, when Indonesia beat China only to lose the final to Korea.

For Korea, though, it was a little different.  Their follow-up was not in the final.  If it had been, they would have had more than twelve hours of rest.  The quarter-final to semi-final transition is always a quick one, though, and the Koreans found themselves dumped with little ceremony by Team Indonesia.

At first, the decision to rest singles star Tommy Sugiarto may have seemed to be Indonesia’s undoing.  Son Wan Ho again got his team out to a winning start, beating teenager Jonatan Christie (pictured right) in straight games.  Christie had beaten veteran Hu Yun twice in a week and also bested India’s Ajay Jayaram but he was no match for a Son Wan Ho, full of confidence after beating the World Champion.

This had Korea sitting pretty, to a point.  Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong (pictured) may be world #1 and they may have had a winning record against Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, who were coming off an embarrassing upset in their tie with Hong Kong.

However, the Indonesians are still the World Champions and they did not let Lee and Yoo forget it.  They romped to a one-sided victory in just over half an hour to get their team right back into it.

Lee Dong Keun just could not get it right in his first match against Anthony Ginting (pictured below).  The twenty-year-old smashed just a little bit harder and remained just a little bit more consistent and he put his team into a 2-1 lead.

Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi (pictured top) had a winning record against Kim Sa Rang / Kim Ki Jung and in fact, they had won the only meetings between these pairs on neutral soil.  They led from start to finish and despite an ominous comeback by the Koreans, in the second game, from 11-19 down to 18-20, the world #12 closed it out in two and sent their team back to the Thomas Cup final, where they will await the winner between Malaysia and Denmark.

In the afternoon session of the Uber Cup semi-finals, Li Xuerui and Wang Shixian each had a little trouble with India’s singles aces but World Champions Tian Qing / Zhao Yunlei dominated Jwala Gutta / Sikki Reddy (pictured bottom) in the doubles to finish off a 3-0 shutout for China.  The Chinese ladies will now await the winner of the tie between Korea and Japan.

Click here for complete semi-final results