BADMINTON - SIMON GRABS FIRST VICTORY

Jakarta, Dec 29 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's singles badminton ace Simon Santoso grabbed the first victory in the Copenhagen Masters tournament at Falconer Hall in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Monday.

In the match applying the round robin system, Simon beat Germany's Marc Zwiebler 21-18, 21-16 in Group 2.

Simon who was flanked by men's doubles coach Sigit Pamungkas, was in the early stages of the match left behind 9-14 in the first game but later managed to shorten the difference to 15-17. After the German grabbed one point, Simon advanced to win the opening game with six point in a row.

In the second game, the gold medalist in SEA Games in Laos was in the beginning left behind very thinly, but later managed to catch up to equalize to 9-9, then 10-10 before rapidly advancing to victory.