September 24, 1996 (New Shuttlenws) - The men's singles top seeds at the badminton U.S. Open currently underway in the city of Orange in southern California had mostly easy second-round matches to start off their run to the finals of the tournament, after drawing first-round byes. Only the fifth-seeded Ong Ewe Hock of Malaysia and the seventh-seeded Indra Wijaya of Indonesia had slightly tougher but still relatively easy wins.

Top-seeded Joko Suprianto of Indonesia hardly broke into a sweat as he disposed of Guillermo Pardo of Brazil 15-1 and 15-2.

Second-seed Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark had an equally easy time against Paul Leyow of Jamaica, winning 15-2 and 15-1.

Third-seed Rashid Sidek of Malaysia breezed past Daron Dasent of Trinidad 15-1 and 15-2.

Fourth-seed Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen of Denmark whipped Hoang Ly of the USA 15-2 and 15-1.

Fifth-seed Ong Ewe Hock of Malaysia who other players say has a tendency to play down to his opponent's level had a slightly tougher time against Morton Auscher of the USA but was never really in trouble. Ong won his match 15-6 and 15-3.

Sixth-seed Fung Permadi of Chinese Taipei disposed of Jorge Possiel of Argentina 15-3 and 15-1.

Seventh-seed Indra Wijaya of Indonesia had a tough first game against Chris Trenholme of Canada but won his second-round match 15-9 and 15-4.

Eighth-seed Pang Chen of Malaysia beat qualifying round winner Nguyen Quyen of the USA 15-4 and 15-0.

All of the lower seeds also won their first and second round matches.

Ninth-seed Iain Sydie of Canada started his U.S. Open campaign with a 15-0 and 15-1 win over qualifier James Young of the USA and followed that victory with a 15-1 and 15-1 defeat of Allan Hundhausen of the USA.

Tenth-seed Budi Santoso had an easy first-round match against Michael Garay of Argentina, winning 15-1 and 15-1. In the second round, Santoso faced Howard Bach of the USA, the newly-crowned Pan-American under-19 champion. The Indonesian defeated Bach 15-3 and 15-4.

Eleventh-seed Andreij Antropov of Russia drew the Indonesian-American player-coach Ignatius Rusli for his first-round match. The two had one of the better matchups of the day as they battled for the win. The Russian prevailed over Rusli in two tough games 15-6 and 15-10.

Antropov then had to face another of the better non-seeds in the competition, Brian Abra of Canada. The Russian veteran managed a 15-5 and 15-8 win over Abra to claim a spot in the round of 16.

The twelfth-seeded Hwang Sun Ho of Korea had a walkover in the first round as Ron Oetomo of the USA was not able to play. In his second round match, Hwang defeated Oscar Brandon of Surinam 15-3 and 15-4.

Thirteenth-seed Yong Hock Kin of Malaysia also had a walkover win in the first round as Marc Padre of the USA defaulted the match. In his second round match, Yong beat Christian Erichsen of Guatemala 15-2 and 15-1.

American Olympian Kevin Han, seeded 14th, met Pedro Yang of Guatemala in his opening match. Han took the first game handily 15-4 but had a much tougher time in the second against a determined Yang. Han managed to eke out a 15-12 score to take the match.

In the second round, Han had a much easier time against a tired Roy Diaz Gonsalez of Mexico, the 15-13 17-16 survivor of the tightest men's singles match of the day against Barbadian Ryan Holder. Han disposed of Gonsalez 15-1 and 15-1.

Fifteenth-seed Kenneth Erichsen of Guatemala beat Ximing Yao of the USA on a walkover in the first round and then defeated Luis Lopezllera of Mexico 15-3 and 15-7.

Sixteenth-seed Mike Beres of Canada defeated Olympian Mario Carulla of Peru 15-12 15-4 to gain the eighth-finals.

The improving Carulla was going for his second upset of the day, having earlier beaten the former Malaysian national team member Chong Weng Kai (Andy Chong), currently a player-coach in the USA, 18-17 and 15-2. However, Beres was in better playing condition and form than Chong and easily defeated the Peruvian after a tightly-contested first game.

The next round of the men's singles, the eighth-finals or the round of 16, will see seeded player against seeded player.

Top-seed Joko Suprianto will face off against 11th-seed Andreij Antropov, while the second-seeded Hoyer-Larsen will meet 16th-seed Mike Beres.

Third-seed Rashid Sidek will be opposed by 15th-seed Kenneth Erichsen and fourth-seed Stuer-Lauridsen will battle 13th-seed Yong Hock Kin.

Fifth-seed Ong Ewe Hock will face off against American hopeful and 14th- seed Kevin Han while the sixth-seeded veteran Fung Permadi will battle the up-and-coming 9th-seed Iain Sydie.

Seventh-seed Indra Wijaya will meet 12th-seed Hwang Sun Ho, and the eighth- seeded Pang Chen will be battling the 1996 Indonesian Open finalist, Budi Santoso who is seeded tenth.

NEW SHUTTLENWS
(e-mail: n.shuttlenws@genie.com)
revised 25Sep96 1445