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Mamiit shocks Danai to win gold

Malaysia's Cheong Jun Hong and Pandelela Rinong perform a dive in the women's synchronized 10m platform final at the Southeast Asian Games in Korat, Thailand, yesterday. Malaysia won the gold medals. PHOTO: AFP

Defending champion Cecil Mamiit of the Philippines shocked Thai hotshot Danai Udomchoke to win the tennis gold in straight sets at the Southeast Asian Games yesterday.

Following tight early exchanges, Mamiit, the second seed, broke Danai in the eighth game and took the first set 6-3.

The Filipino veteran, ranked almost 350 places below his opponent, broke Danai in the first game of the second set and continued to dominate with his powerful and consistent groundstrokes, taking the set 6-0.

Once ranked 72 in the world but now close to dropping out of the top 500 at number 498, Mamiit, 31, also beat Danai in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games final in the Philippines to take the gold.

"I felt fresh and great and solid throughout the whole match," said Mamiit, who Saturday lost to Danai in the semi-final of the team competition. "I just wanted to get better. I felt down on myself after the semi-final [of the team competition]."

Danai, who received treatment during the match, said: "I knew before that it was going to be a tough match because I hurt my left foot in the semi-final. He played well. I missed a lot because I couldn't move well and had to try to hit winners."

Top-seed Danai, the world No. 154, had come into the tournament full of confidence following his first ever title at the round-robin Asia Cup on home soil earlier this month.

Danai, 26, reached the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year, beating 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero before falling to Serbia's Novak Djokovic.

WOMEN'S SINGLES

In the women's singles, Thailand's Nudnida Luangnam, 20, was beaten in straight sets by top-seeded Indonesia's Sandy Gumulya 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).

Nudnida, ranked No. 322 in the world and the second seed, was more competitive in the second set but failed to take her chance when serving for the set and was beaten in the resulting tie-break by the 21-year-old Gulmulya, ranked No. 244.

Thailand won both the men's and women's team golds in the tennis competition.

BADMINTON

Indonesia swept the badminton gold medal finals, winning all five in straight games.

The 2004 Olympic gold medalist and world No. 7 Taufik Hidayat won the men's singles final over 24th-ranked Lee Yen Hui Kendrick of Singapore.

Indonesia's top-ranked female player Maria Kristin Yulianti won the women's final against her compatriot Adriyanti Firdasari.

The established pair of Hendra Setiawan and Markis Kido were too strong in the men's final, defeating Singapore's Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Hendra Wijaya.

In an all-Indonesian women's doubles finals, Vita Marissa and Natsir Liliyana beat Greysia Polii and Jo Novita.

Polii and Novita had upset Malaysia's Wong Pey Tti and Chin Eei Hui in the quarter-finals.

In the mixed doubles final, the established pairing of Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa managed to succeed where compatriots Nova Widianto and Natsir had failed in the semi-finals by beating Thai pair Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thuongthongkam.

Indonesia were helped by the absence of Malaysia's highly-rated Lee Chong Wei in the men's singles and Wong Mew Choo in the women's singles and will face a tougher task in next year's Beijing Olympics against the Chinese team.

BASEBALL

Thailand took gold in an exciting conclusion to the baseball, beating the Philippines 5-4. In the final round robin match that served as a de facto final, Thailand led the Philippines 5-2 going into the ninth inning. The Philippines scored two runs in the top of the ninth before Thailand got the final out.

In volleyball, there was double disappointment for Vietnam, who were forced to settle for silver after losing the men's final to Indonesia and the women's final to Thailand, both in straight sets.
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