Fancied bets breeze thru in RP Open first round

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Top seed Chen Hong and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat
downed their respective rivals in varying fashions
yesterday to lead the siege of the fancied bets in
men’s singles even as Malaysian qualifier Kwong Beng
Chan shocked No. 12 seed Yen Hui Kendrick Lee of
Singapore at the start of the 2007 Bingo Bonanza
Philippine Open Badminton Championships at the
Philsports Arena in Pasig City, Metro Manila
Wednesday.

Chen, the Chinese world No. 2, went through some
anxious moments before subduing Ajay Jayaram of India,
21-19, 21-17, while Hidayat, ranked 10th in the world
and seeded fifth here, hardly worked out a sweat in
disposing of Iranian Kaveh Mehrabi, 21-13, 21-12, in
23 minutes to barge into the second round of the
centerpiece event.

Chen, all geared up for this event following his title
romp in the Thailand Open two weeks ago, faces another
Indian Anand Pawar while Hidayat, a semi-finalist in
the Djarum Indonesia Super Series, takes on Vietnamese
Tien Minh Nguyen in today’s Last 32 matches starting
at 8:30 a.m.

Pawar made short work of Juergen Koch of Austria,
21-8, 21-13, while Tien trounced Bjoem Joppien of
Germany, 21-10, 21-14, in this Grand Prix Gold event
sponsored by Bingo Bonanza Corp. for the second
straight year.

Chan provided the early sparks in the tournament,
organized by IMG and held under the auspices of the
Philippine Badminton Association, as he surprised the
fancied Lee, 22-20, 21-15, to barge into the Last 32
of the event sanctioned by the International Badminton
Federation.

It was Kwong’s fourth straight win in just two days
after posting three victories over Filipino Roden
Rivera, Hoang Hai Nguyen of Vietnam and Huy Giang
Nguyen of Vietnam in Tuesday’s qualifiers.

Second seed and world No. 3 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia,
Chinese world No. 5 Chunlai Bao, Japanese Shoji Sato
and defending champion Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia all
made it safely into the second round of the event,
which drew a banner field of 31 countries involving
more than 300 players.

Lee, eyeing no less than a crack at the crown, whipped
Taiwanese Sheng Shiun Liao, 21-15, 21-12; Bao
outplayed Indon Andreas Adityawarman, 21-14, 21-12;
and Sato bundled out Canadian Bobby Milroy, 21-19, 8-5
(Ret.).

No. 8 Hashim, who outplayed brother Roslin to win the
event last year, beat Luka Petric of Slovenia, 21-9,
21-14, to join No. 4 Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark, No.
14 Kay Bin Yeoh of Malaysia, No. 9 Sung Hwan Park of
Korea and No. 13 Tsuen Seng Lee of Malaysia in the
next phase.

Jonassen smashed Alexandre Paixao of Portugal , 21-10,
21-8; Yeoh blasted Chetan Anand of India , 21-10,
21-15; Sung downed Klaus Raffeiner of Italy , 21-8,
21-7; and Lee smothered Petr Koukal of the Czech
Republic , 21-18, 21-10.
Matches in ladies singles, mixed doubles, women’s
doubles and men’s doubles are still being played at
presstime.

Meanwhile, tickets to the five-day event are now on
sale at Ticketworld at the National Book Store
outlets. Tickets are pegged at P300, P200, P150, P100
and P50 in the eliminations to quarterfinal stages.
Tickets in the semis and finals are priced at P500,
P400, P300, P200 and P50.

The event, organized by IMG and held under the
auspices of the Philippine Badminton Association, will
be shown live on Solar Sports and RPN-9 beginning with
the semifinal round on July 21 and the finals on July
22.

The RP Open is backed by Victor, exclusively
distributed by Pcome Industrial Sales, Inc., Snickers,
The Philippine Star, Solar Sports (official
broadcaster), Holiday Inn Galleria Manila and The
Richmonde (official hotels).