Badminton: Top Indonesian pair in doubles final

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Sydney: Top-seeded pair Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan of Indonesia marched into the Olympic badminton men's doubles final with a 15-13, 15-10 victory over South Korean world champions Kim Dong-Moon and Ha Tae-Kwon on Wednesday.

The world number one ranked pair took just under an hour to overcome the fourth seeds and look strong favourites to win gold.

In Thursday's final they will play second-seeded Lee Dong-Soo and Yoo Yong-Sung of Korea who beat Tan Fook Choong and Wan Wah Lee of Malaysia 15-12, 7-15, 15-4 in a hard-fought match played in a terrific atmosphere.

Both teams had a small but extremely vocal band of supporters either side of the court whose roars of anticipation with every smash and constant pummelling of the metal stands gave the locals a small taste of what sort of noise accompanies big tournaments in Asia.

The Malaysians, who had won the only previous two meetings between the teams, fought back strongly to win a fiercely contested second game as the decibel level rose.

But the Koreans, with a series of deadly overheads, stormed through the third game with little trouble, sinking to their knees after converting match point.

The mixed doubles semifinals were being played later on Wednesday along with the quarterfinals of the men's singles and women's doubles.

In the men's singles late on Tuesday, Taufik Hidayat, 19, clinched his last eight spot when he beat unseeded Malaysian Ong Ewe Hock 15-9, 13-15, 15-3.

His next opponent is seventh seed Ji Xinpeng of China who overcame Kevin Han of the US 15-3, 15-6.



(c) Reuters Limited.