Indon too classy for Escoses; Kennie falls

Fancied Indon Taufik Hidayat put on an amazing display of badminton prowess as he fashioned out a 15-6, 15-8, win over Filipino qualifier Lloyd Escoses yesterday even as local ladies singles bet Kennie Asuncion lost her second round match to a Taiwanese rival in the JVC Asian Badminton Championships at the Philsports Arena.

Hidayat, the defending men’s singles champion who finished No. 1 in his division in the JVC Asian Rankings heading into the event, proved too much and too classy for the 20-year-old Escoses, who came up with two victories to make it to the main draw.

But it was Asuncion’s setback that completely ruined the day for the hosts as the 24-year-old reigning National Open champion, who with brother Kennevic composed the two-player RP team to next month’s SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, blew a one-game, 6-2 lead in the second frame and bowed to resilient Taiwanese Huang Chia-chin, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2.

"I’ve had too many errors," said Kennie, shaking her head after squandering what had appeared to be a good lead in the second game of their best-of-three match.

After engaging the Taiwanese, a veteran of the Sydney Olympics, to a series of service-over in the first game, Asuncion snatched an 11-9 win and looked headed for an explosive day — when she raced to a 6-2 lead in the next game.

But the Filipino bet suddenly turned erratic, her forehand and backhand shots either proving short or simply catching the net, enabling the Taiwanese to pile up points to force a 7-all tie before scoring the next four points for the victory.

For many, however, it was the rigors of playing two sets of best-of-three games in one day that took their toll on Asuncion, who nevertheless said she had learned a lot from the experience.

"We’re here for the experience and exposure, not necessarily win games considering the world-class opposition," said Asuncion, who arranged her match with Huang by beating Japanese Kyoko Komuro, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8.

Truly, the field is world-class.

Hidayat underscored this by dominating Escoses, while world No. 5 Wang Chen of Hong Kong, the top seeded bet in the ladies singles, routed Sri Lankan Dilhani de Silva, 11-1, 11-2. Sydney Olympics bronze medallists Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Mi were to open their bid in the mixed doubles against unfancied Wen Si Ming and Lei Sao Chi of Macau late last night.

Actually, all but one of the five local wildcard bets gained berths in the main draw as they hurdled their second qualifying matches late Tuesday night although they failed to sustain their charge and fell one after the other.

A star-studded field is competing in the five-day championships, including at least five of the world’s top players in the men’s and ladies singles, the men’s and ladies doubles and the mixed doubles events of this championships sponsored by Japanese electronic giant JVC and organized by global marketing company IMG.

The fancied men’s doubles defending champion team of Tony Gunawan and Halim Heryanto of Indonesia debuts today at 10:20 a.m. against Lin Woon Fui and Tazari Fairuzizuan of Malaysia, while world No. 1 ladies doubles tandem of Gao Ling and Huang Sui of China struts its wares, also today at 1 p.m., against Syrians Iva Vroya Al Ratrib and Rasha Al-Hassan.

The other RP bets who advanced to the main draw were Rodel Bartolome, who whipped Macau’s O Man Tong, 15-4, 15-2; Jaime Llanes, who routed Leong Kin Fei, also of Macau, 15-4, 15-1; and Arolas Amahit, who beat Cambodian Siphanthan Long, 15-2, 15-0.

Jaime Junio failed to join his compatriots as he bowed to Iran’s Bagheri Gholamreza, 15-2, 15-13. Also losing their matches were Arafura Games standout Paula Obanana, who bowed to Syrian Iva Vrova Al-Katrib, 11-4, 5-11, 6-11; Regine Katigbak, who was whitewashed by Taiwanese Cheng Wan-Ju, 0-11, 0-11; Vanessa Tanco, who was routed by Koran Lee Kyung Won, 3-11, 1-11.