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WORLD UNIVERSITY CHAMPS - Students Surprise in Singles
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 At the World University Badminton Championships in Braga Portugal, the men's singles results were almost completely opposite to the received wisdom in world badminton. In the mixed team action, traditional powerhouses in the discipline China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Korea all lost vital points. Meanwhile, as yet undefeated Salakjit Ponsana (pictured) has led Thailand to the finals, where they will face China in a repeat of the 2007 Universiade.
By Don Hearn. Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)
The early round action saw the start of the anomaly as Indonesia, who did finally top Group C, was clearly hurting from the absence of Tommy Sugiarto and Alamsyah Yunus, who had stood strong last August. Achmad Rivai, not among the 25 Indonesians with BWF rankings, lost the first of many matches as Indonesia started their campaign with a 4-1 win over Spain.
It was to be much the same struggle for Malaysia as their unranked men's singles shuttlers failed to win a single match, even against shuttlers from Macau, Germany and Great Britain. Malaysia still beat those teams, however, ceding Group B leader honours to Thailand and Japan but later rising through the consolation rounds to finish in 11th spot with a 3-2 win over Great Britain on the strength of 3 doubles players all conspicuously named Abdul Latif.
 In Tuesday's quarter-finals, it was China and Korea who faltered in men's singles, despite winning their way to a semi-final meeting together. China's Du Pengyu dropped the only point in his team's 3-1 win over Japan when he was beaten by Kazushi Yamada.
Meanwhile, there were no surprises when world #51 Hsieh Yu Hsing (photo) of Chinese Taipei snatched a match for his team by beating Korea's Noh Ye Wook in straight games. World Junior Champion Shin Baek Cheol, won both of his doubles matches to send Korea to the semi-finals against China.
In the semi-final, China blanked Korea 3-0. Han Gi Hoon, best remembered for winning the crucial boys' singles point that clinched team gold for Korea in the World Junior Championships 2 years ago, was no match for world #174 Du Pengyu today. Wang Yihan beat the towering Kim Mun Hee in 3 games to send China to the final.
China is set to face Thailand in the final, but this time they will be without 3 crucial factors that favoured them last summer: Boonsak, Sudket, and the home crowd. Thailand still has Boonsak's little sister and Salakjit has won all four of her matches so far but so has world #18 Wang Yihan, whom the Thai will likely be facing as she attempts to lift her team to the gold. In the Universiade last August, Salakjit lost two close matches to China's other Wang, Wang Lin.
Oddly enough, Thailand's ticket to the final came with a 3-1 victory over Poland. Dropping Thailand's only point in that matchup, after beating players from Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia, was Sittichai Viboonsin in, you guessed it, men's singles.
For all results, click HERE
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 May 2008 )
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