SALIM SURPRISES STUER IN HONG KONG OPEN SEMIS
by Mike Grossman (from a report filed by YANG YANG Badminton Equipment

November 9, 1996 (New Shuttlenws) - The upset-conscious Indonesian badminton men's singles player Salim struck again today at the Hong Kong Open when he surprised 3-4 seed Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen of Denmark in the semifinals. Salim defeated the Danish player 15-11 and 15-10 to post his second big upset in two consecutive tournaments.

At last week's China Open, Salim had defeated Olympic silver medalist and top-seed Dong Jion of China in the round-of-16.

In the other men's singles semifinal, Fung Permadi of Chinese Taipei overcame stiff opposition from another up-and-coming Indonesian, Budi Santoso. Permadi beat Santoso 15-9 in the first game, but the Indonesian got back in the match by winning the second 15-10. Permadi and Santoso staged a competitive third and deciding game with Permadi coming out on top, 15-10.

Permadi's win puts him in a good position to claim his second major international badminton title in two weeks. Permadi had taken top men's singles honor at the China Open last Sunday.

In women's singles, top-seed Mia Audina brushed aside Kim Ji Hyun of Korea in her semifinal match, allowing the Korean to score only 3 points in each of the two one-sided games.

Second-seed Camilla Martin of Denmark scraped by Ra Kyung Min of Korea in the other semifinal. Martin dropped the first game to Ra 6-11. In the second, the Dane strung several points together to even up the match with a score of 11-4.

The decider was a dandy of a women's singles game with both ladies putting out great effort. The two matched point for point deep into setting or overtime. Martin finally managed to score the winning point to end the decider at 12-11.