SWISS OPEN: CHINA TO FACE DENMARK IN MEN'S SINGLES SEMIS

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is sponsored by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS and their Swiss agents, SQUIRREL SA (24-494-3222/fax:24-494-1131). **

March 22, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Players from China and Denmark prevailed over their opponents in yesterday's men's singles quarterfinals of the Swiss Open badminton tournament in Basel to set up two China versus Denmark semifinal matches later on today.

Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark, the Olympic gold medalist and the Swiss Open men's singles top-seed, dropped a very close first game to Park Sung Woo of Korea 17-18 and then took the next two games 15-9 and 15-12 to book a semifinal match against Sun Jun of China. Sun, the losing finalist in last week's All-England Open, also had to come back from a first game loss in his quarterfinal match against Indra Wijaya of Indonesia. Sun beat the Indonesian player 12-15, 15-11 and 15-1.

Dong Jiong of China, the Olympic silver medalist and the winner of the All-England Open, took out Denmark's Peter Gade-Christensen 15-8 and 15-7 to confirm his place in the semifinals. His opponent will be another of the crop of top Danish men's singles specialists, Peter Rasmussen. Rasmussen eliminated Alan Budi Kusuma of Indonesia 17-14 and 15-5.

In the women's singles quarterfinals, top-seed Camilla Martin of Denmark beat Kim Ji Hyun of Korea 11-3, 8-11 and 11-6. Second-seed Ye Zhaoying of China easily defeated Mette Sorensen of Denmark 11-6 and 11-1.

Martin will face another Korean, Lee Joo Hyun, in the semifinals, while Ye plays archrival Susi Susanti of Indonesia. Lee beat Wang Chen of China 11-8 and 11-6 in her quarterfinal match.

Susi had an easy match against Han Jingna, toying with the Chinese player 11-1 in the first game and then finishing Han off 11-7 in the second.

In mixed doubles, Liu Yong and Ge Fei continued their undefeated run this year. Liu and Ge beat Indonesia's experimental combination of Trikus Heryanto and Elisa Nathanael 15-12 and 15-11. The Chinese pair, winner of three top top titles this year including last week's All-England, will play Imam Tohari and Ema Ermawati, the Indonesian number three pair, in the semifinals.

Tohari and Ermawati disposed of Ha Tae Kwon and Kim Shin Young of Korea 15-10 and 15-9. Another Indonesian pair, Flandy Limpele and Minarti Timur, beat the German-Dutch combination of Michael Keck and Erica van den Heuvel 15-11 and 15-8. Limpele and Timur will play Koreans Lee Dong Soo and Yim Kyung Jin whose quarterfinal opponents, Jens Eriksen and Marlene Thomsen of Denmark, were unable to play.

Men's doubles top-seeds Sigit Budiarto and Chandra Wijaya of Indonesia will be out to avenge their All-England semifinals defeat at the hands of the eventual champions, Koreans Ha Tae Kwon and Kang Kyung Jin, in today's Swiss Open semifinals. Sigit and Wijaya beat Peter Axelsson and Par-Gunnar Jonsson of Sweden 15-6 and 15-8, while Ha and Kang whipped Danish players Jim Laugessen and Thomas Stavngaard 15-5 and 15-5.

Olympic gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky of Indonesia got past Simon Archer and Chris Hunt of England 15-11 and 15-8 to claim a spot in the semifinals against Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Yung Sung of Korea, the 7-15, 15-2 and 15-12 winners over Liu Yong and Zhang Wei of China.

Women's doubles top-seeds Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China bulldozed their way past Chung Jae Hee and Yim Kyung Jin of Korea 15-5 and 15-2, while Helene Kirkegaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark prevailed over Nicola Beck and Joanne Davies of England 9-15, 15-9 and 15-1. The top Chinese pair will play the Danes in the semis.

The other women's doubles semifinals will be between the Chinese pair of singles specialists, Ye Zhaoying and Han Jingna, and Koreans Jang Hye Ock and Kim Shin Young. Ye and Han beat Cha Yoon Sook and Lee So Young of Korea 15-2 and 15-7 in the quarterfinals, while Jang and Kim eliminated another of the Indoensian experiments, Denyana Lomban and Resiana Zelin, 15-8, 7-15, and 15-10.