Asuncion bows out of world tiff

Kennevic Asuncion bowed out of the IBF World Badminton Championships as he dropped a 7-15, 4-15 decision to eighth-ranked Lee Hyun-il in one of the Last 32 matches Wednesday at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England.

Asuncion, the country’s top player still searching for a breakthrough win in big-time competitions, found the South Korean ace too tough a rival to overcome, failing to re-display the form that netted him a 17-14, 15-8 victory over local bet Andrew Smith Tuesday.

The other bets from Southeast Asia, however, continued to hold sway.

Third seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia whipped Finland’s Kasperi Salo, 15-10, 15-8; Ronald Susilo of Singapore rallied from a set down to turn back Denmark’s Peter Rasmussen, 8-15, 15-12, 17-15; and Wong Choong Hann, the ninth seed, beat Indon Budi Santoso, 15-6, 15-13.

In a duel of Malaysian brothers, Muhammad Roslin Hashim defeated Muhammad Hafiz, 15-11, 15-8, to advance to the Last 16 of the annual championships.

Roslin and Hafiz became the first brothers to face each other in a world championship.

The contest was played in a relaxed atmosphere, with the urgency of normal competition understandably subdued, but both brothers overcame their misgivings about the situation to provide decent entertainment for the crowd.

The result however was only in doubt up till about 11-11 in the first game after which Roslin, slightly the quicker and more aggressive, began to pull away.

Afterwards he came round the net to embrace his younger brother, and the two men left the court with their arms around each other.

It was an especially bitter-sweet moment for Roslin, who would not have gained entry to the world championships but for the SARS virus which caused its postponement for 10 weeks.

"I am both happy and sad," said Roslin, a former world number one until struck down by injury.

Roslin next plays Lee, Asuncion’s tormentor, but later there was bad news for four Koreans in the men’s doubles.

Ha Tae-Kwon has pulled out with a bad back which means his top-seeded partnership with Kim Dong-Moon will not now have a chance to win the world title back.

And Yoo-Yong-Sung has withdrawn with a bad elbow, which means his second seeded partnership with Lee Dong-Soo has had to pull out of the tournament too. It offers a chance of two Danish pairs to become world champion.

Meanwhile, the two singles favorites progressed safely to the third round. China’s Chen Hong overcame the German Jens Roch, 15-15, 15-1, in the men’s and now plays Hidetaka Yamada, the 11th seed from Japan.

Hongkong’s Wang Chen beat the Russian Elena Sukhareva, 11-8, 11-5, in the women’s singles and goes through to meet the unseeded Korean Jun Jae-Youn. (With AFP reports)