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Taufik Hidayat Magical, Clinches World Championship Final Spot
PARIS - Taufik Hidayat, the former Olympic champion who surprisingly claimed this week that he is no longer a top player, earned himself a great chance to win back the world title he took five years ago.
The unpredictable 29-year-old Indonesian did that with a beautifully judged 21-10, 22-20 win over Park Sung-Hwan, the tournament's great giant-killer.
On Friday, the South Korean ousted Lin Dan, the game's greatest player.
But one day later, Park was beaten by an opponent with a greater desire than Lin and a great knack of taking the the big points.
This showed when Hidayat went 18-20 down in the second game, with Park having the momentum and likely to become favorite in a third game against the older man.
"I really wanted two sets in this match," said Hidayat. "I felt I must win the second set. I didn't want to play three, especially with the final coming tomorrow."
On the first game point Hidayat sliced an overhead treacherously down and combined it with a cross-court switch which pressured Park into hitting long.
And on the second he produced a couple of front court jabs which again made his opponent over-hit.
"He really knows how to control game," said Park. "I shall go home and learn from him."
But the most astounding point was the next one, the one which took Hidayat to match point at 21-20.
Park's flicked lift went past him and seemed certain to win the rally.
Instead Hidayat turned and ran, caught the shuttle up, and somehow whipped a retrieve which went to a near-perfect length.
Park, surprised, replied with a shot too high over the net -- and there was Hidayat, in position again, to kill it.
Doubts may nevertheless remain about the 29-year-old's ability to survive a long match if Chen Jin, the third seed from China who will be contesting his second successive world men's singles final, forces one on Sunday.
It may have been this which two days ago made Hidayat say: "Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei are top players -- I'm not."
Lin and Lee have nevertheless been beaten and Hidayat now believes he has a chance to repeat his world title triumph of 2005 in Anaheim, California.
"That was a long time ago, so I want to get the title this time," said Hidayat, who despite this repeated a claim that the Asian Games were more important than the world championships.
That, he said, was because the world championships were now annual instead of every two years.
Chen, certainly showed that he can last a long match.
Although he lost the first game in the other semi-final against Peter Gade, rarely did the second seeded Dane looked likely to win.
Chen was strong, consistent, and determined, getting his tactics right by keeping the rallies going at a high pace, and the 33-year-old Gade steadily ran out of gas in a 19-21, 21-8, 21-11 defeat.
"Chen played very fast and it was difficult," said Gade. "But this was the second time this week I had played two matches within 16 hours of each other, and that is difficult for me.
"I'm disappointed, but I will do my best in the next one or two years or whatever is left of my career. Chen Jin, Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei are all good players -- but I know I can still beat them."
Chen said: "Last year I got the silver medal, so this year I want to make a better performance and maybe get the gold."
China made sure of winning the world women's singles title for the seventh time in a row when Wang Lin, the seventh seed, halted Denmark's Tine Baun with a surprisingly one-sided 21-11, 21-8 semi-final win.
Baun, who won the All-England Open title five months ago with wins over two leading Chinese players, appeared to have problems with an elbow injury and was swept aside by a quicker, more incisive opponent.
Wang Xin beat her compatriot Wang Shixian 21-19, 11-21, 21-6 to join the third Chinese player, Wang Lin, in the final.
Later the Chinese stayed in contention to win all five world titles for the first time since 1987 in Beijing - the only time it has been done.
This remained possible after Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng, the fifth-seeded defending men's doubles champions, reached the final again by winning 21-16, 21-13 against Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, the second-seeded Indonesians who beat them in the Olympic final in Beijing two years ago.
AFP
