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Dutch Open: Mia Bursts Into Final

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG Badminton Products and their Western Canada agents - MAAKL Corporation, Saint Albert, Alberta (Tel 780-458-2026/ Fax 780-459-8891) **

October 2, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Mia Audina, who won an Olympic Games silver medal in badminton women's singles in 1996 while representing her native Indonesia, today burst into her first international final as a player for the Dutch badminton association. In one of today's semifinal matches at the Dutch Open badminton championships in Den Bosch, she upset the top-seeded Chinese player Zhou Mi. Audina battled back from a poorly played opening set to beat Zhou in three sets 3-11, 11-5 and 11-2.

The 19-year old Audina took up Dutch residency in August when, despite the objections of the Indonesian badminton association, she moved to Rotterdam to be with her Dutch-Indonesian husband. The Indonesian association then dropped her from the national team, after which she signed up to play for the Netherlands.

The top-seeded Zhou is ranked number seven in the world while Audina has fallen to number 43 because she had not competed internationally since March. She had gotten married at that time and then her mother passed away in late April. Also, badminton rules do not allow a player to compete internationally for another national association for a period of three months after changing national affiliations.

In tomorrow's final, Audina will face another Chinese player, Tang Chunyu. Tang ia a rookie on the international circuit who had to go through qualifying to make it into the Dutch Open main draw. In her semifinal match today, she upended third seed Mette Pedersen of Denmark 11-8 and 11-3.

Audina is given only a slight edge over the less-experienced Tang in tomorrow's final, because of her lack of competition and full-time training since March.

Audina's success as a Dutch player so far has gained big dividends for Dutch badminton. In an extraordinary move for Dutch television, Audina's match with Zhou today was shown live and tomorrow's final will also be aired.

Following are the results of today's other semifinals (number before player's name indicates seeding).

Men's Singles
1-Ji Xinpeng (China) beat 7-Jason Wong (Malaysia) 15-9, 15-6
Xia Xuanze (China) beat 8-Anders Boesen (Denmark) 15-11, 13-15, 15-4

Men's Doubles
1-Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah (Malaysia) beat 6-Chris Hunt and Julian Robertson (England) 15-8, 7-15, 15-4
Martin Lundgaard Hansen and Lars Paaske (Denmark) beat 5-Chew Choon Eng and Rosman Razak (Malaysia) 13-15, 15-9, 15-7

Women's Doubles
Chen Lin and Jiang Xuelian (China) beat 1-Nicole Grether and Karen Stechmann (Germany) 15-5, 15-13
Tang Chunyu and Zhou Mi (China) beat Kaori Saito and Keiko Takeno (Japan) 15-1, 5-15, 15-4

Mixed Doubles
5-Martin Lundgaard Hansen and Pernille Harder (Denmark) beat 3-Frederik Bergstrom and Jenny Karlsson (Sweden) 15-12, 15-11
(Ms.) Chen Lin and Chen Qiqiu (China) beat Helene Kirkegaard and Jonas Rasmussen (Denmark) 15-11, 15-7

(nbb/mg)