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Susilo spoils Malaysia's good day
October 12, 2001 - Source : IBF
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 Until 2200h last night, Eindhoven time, Malaysia's men's team had pulled of the hat trick and placed three singles players in the Rutac Hollandquarter-finals. There should have been a fourth, but Ong Ewe Hock was sent home by Ronald Susilo.
Things can't always go smoothly all the way, and the whole Malaysian team realised this late last night, when their top player in the draw, Ong Ewe Hock, was beaten by Susilo. And the worst part is that it took only three games for the Singaporean to beat the top seed. Three hard-fought games, but still….
"I wanted to keep patient, because he has such a good defence and I didn't want to bring up my stamina too much, so I took my time and tried to make him run," said Susilo. Ong (pictured) did try to speed up the game at key moments, but the thin Indonesian-born Susilo was just everywhere, bringing back the shuttle at net level, or with deep high clears.
"We had played once before in the Malaysian but he had to withdraw because of an injury, so I guess this was the first real encounter," explained Susilo. During these past few months, Ronald Susilo had been troubling some of the best players in the world, including Taufik Hidayat and Lee Hyun Il at the Asia Cup. Only back at training since the end of last month because of his thigh injury, Susilo should be very happy with the way he played yesterday.
Until then, it had been a perfect day for Indra Gunawan's protégés: Ramesh Nathen had set the tone by beating the number two seed, Indra Wijaya, showing extraordinary net play and pugnacity. The 24-year-old Malaysian player came back from 2 games down to beat the world number 12 in five games, 6/8 - 1/7 - 7/3 - 7/1 - 7/0.
"I didn't think about anything, I just went for it, and tried my best. I knew I could beat a top player as I had already beaten Lee Hyun Il at the All England. Besides, I like to play in Europe: it's not as humid and hot, no wind, which is good for my style of play," explained Nathen (pictured here pulling off one of his good net shots).
After Nathen's good start, it was then the turn of Lee Tsuen Seng and Ayob Sairul Amar to keep up the good work. Lee had to go into overtime to beat Martin Hagberg, and Ayob was to play Heryanto Arbi, slowly coming back to his best level. "Of course, it's always nice to beat such a big name. And I knew I had to be careful because he is a very experienced player with tricky shots and a fast smash," said Ayob. Yet this wasn't sufficient to beat the Malaysian players, who explained that Indra Gunawan's support and confidence in them has helped them a lot to regain their self-confidence. "Besides, he doesn't put any pressure on us; He doesn''t say 'go win this tournament', but instead: 'make an upset and come back'" added a smiling Nathen.
Now things will start to get tough, as 2 out of three Malaysians will play the Chinese young guard in the quarter-finals today. Lee takes on Chen Yu, while Ayob will play for the first time against Bao Chunlai, the World Junior Champion. Ramesh Nathen will play another unexpected guest, as Chetan Anand of India beat Druzchenko in a five-setter. The last quarter final features Ronald Susilo against the young and talented left- handed junior from China, Lin Dan (pictured). The latter made light work of Sweden's Rasmus Wengberg.
In the women''s singles event, the Europeans could rejoice as Chinese ladies will still have to face the top players from the old continent. Marina Andrievskaya beat China's new comer Li Wenyan, while Mia Audina, the top seed in the event took over Xu Huaiwen, in the best manner - much to the crowd's delight.
No such luck for England''s Julia Mann, seeded third, whose unlucky draw meant an early fight against last week's GermanChampion, Pi Hongyan. Even if the score doesn't really reflect the match - 7/2 - 7/1 - 7/2, Pi once again pulled off some unexpected shots to make her opponent run back and forth to each corner. Mann (pictured) worked her way through some points, but couldn't keep up with the pace during the whole match. Pi definitely is a player to watch in the next rounds.. and weeks to come.
Mette Sorensen and Tracey Hallam will be the other two European flag holders, along with Chinese born Yao Jie, now representing the Netherlands, who beat Judith Meulendijks in five games. Zeng Yaqiong and Hu Ting will stand for China, as expected, in the women's singles event.
Hu Ting had an even better day after she upset the fourth seeded pair in the women''s doubles with partner Li Wenyan. They beat Katrin Piotrowsky and Juliane Schenk of Germany in four games, for the only big upset of the draw in this category. Germany could have something to cheer about in the mixed doubles, though, when Joachim Tesche and Anne Hoensheid beat number four seeds Maya and Andrej Pohar of Slovenia, while all other big guns advanced to the quarter final stage.
The only surprise in the men's doubles came with the victory of Mathias Boe and Peter Steffensen against number two seeds Mateusiak and Logosz of Poland - a half a surprise, really, considering the level of the Danish pair. But today, things will start to get tougher, especially in this category where there will be a fight between Denmark's three pairs and the Europeans countries, including Germany, England, France and Russia.
Latest Results:
Men's Singles
Women's Singles
Men's Doubles
Women's Doubles
Mixed Doubles
Report and pictures by Raphael Sachetat
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