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MALAYSIAN OPEN: GADE STOPS GIANTKILLER JEFFER

July 5, 1998 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Badminton's men's singles world number one, Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark, stopped Indonesian Rosobin Jeffer's giant killing string at the Malaysian Open tournament in Penang today. He defeated the up-and-comer 15-5 and 15-12 in one of the day's five championship matches.

Gade took only forty minutes to assert his number one standing over Jeffer who had upended seeded players Ong Ewe Hock of Malaysia in the round-of-16, Wong Choon Hann, also of Malaysia, in the quarterfinals, and Rashid Sidek, still another Malaysian, in the semifinals.

The Danish ace and the Indonesian were neck-and-neck early in the first game, 4-all. Then Gade began to take command of the play, using his superior quickness and a variety of surprising off-tempo punch and clip shots to take a 12-4 lead. Jeffer got in one more point before Gade finished off the first game at 15-5.

In the second, Gade seemed to be bothered by the strong drift blowing at his back and at his side. He played more tentatively, allowing the Indonesian into the match. Jeffer got a nose ahead in the middle of the game at 10-7. Gade closed in with several effective shots but the Indonesian managed to pull away again at 12-9.

By now though, the Dane had mastered the drift and his game was back on song. He scored the next 6 points to take the championship.

Gade was so thrilled by his victory that, after an on-court display of joy, he walked over to his goodlooking female teammate Camilla Martin and gave her a kiss.

In the women's singles final, Zhang Ning of China, the fourth seed, defeated her second-seeded teammate Dai Yun 11-5, 1-11 and 11-3. Both players were troubled by the strong drift on the court, with Zhang winning by a big margin when she was on the good end and Dai doing the same after the change of ends.

In the decider, Zhang was an easy winner as Dai seemd to be tired and slow of foot.

Indonesians Trikus Heryanto and Minarti Timur took the mixed doubles title, upsetting top-seeds Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark in an 80-minute thriller. The Danes had taken the first game 15-8 but fell into a spate of errors that allowed the Indonesians to come back and win the second and third games, both with 18-15 scores.

In the women's doubles final, Olsen and compatriot Marlene Thomsen easily defeated Indonesians Eliza Nathanael and Resiana Zelin (Suprianto) 15-8 and 15-4.

The unseeded Indonesian pair of Tony Gunawan, a finalist at the All-England this year with Chandra Wijaya, and new partner Halim Jabbar upset top-seeds Liu Yong and Yu Jinhao of China in the men's doubles championship match 6-15, 15-5 and 15-11.

(aplayer/dsimmons)