In the thrilling tie expected against Korea, Indonesia won their ticket for the quarter final where they will meet the winner of Japan and the USA. But the heroes of the night were not the players expected...

Once the draws were made few weeks ago, everyone had one thought on their minds; to see who of the top five teams in the world would meet, and be there to watch. It was finally Korea and Indonesia who were lucky - or unlucky - to play against each other in the round robin process of this competition. With Malaysia and Denmark as probable future opponents for the loser of this tie, it was clear that one had better field the best team to top the group and save one extra day of play. For both teams, this match was uncertain as the recent form of the majority of the players involved in the tie had been below their usual standard. Only Lee Hyun Il had performed well recently, clinching silver in the All England last March in Birmingham. All the others had been out injured or getting married, or not performing well, which led to a big question mark for this overall match.

Lee Hyun Il and Taufik Hidayat were up against each other for one of the highlights of the competition so far. And the two players didn't disappoint on the first game, hardly fought, even if the Korean committed some mistakes at key moments and let the Olympic and World champion take the first game 21/16. Yet his stamina came down a bit while the Korean was definitely finding the right pace and secured the second and third games, which were a bit disappointing for the Indonesian wonder. He was then not moving as smoothly as before on court.

With Korea in the lead in spite of Indonesia's main hope for a first point, things looked rather difficult. They looked even worse when Korea's first double of Jung Jae Sung and Lee Young Dae worked wonders against the legendary pair of Sigit and Candra. Attacking the shuttle very early in the rally, putting a lot of pressure on their opponents by keeping to the net at all times, the young Koreans were incredibly efficient. Their attitude told how much they wanted to win, while the Indonesians were moving around with their heads down. The fighting spirit was on Korea's side, in spite of the loud and cheering Indonesian fans just over the TV court. Quick, more stable and more efficient in the key moments, Lee and Jung won in straight games 21/16 - 21/14. The Indonesians were banking on the first two matches, and here they were trailing 0/2 in the tie... Yet, it wasn't over...

Starting with Sony Dwi Kuncoro, fitter than the previous months spent taking care of a recurrent injury. During a rematch of the Athens's semi final against Shon Seung Mo, Sony took his revenge rather lightly, 21/9 - 21/12, boosting the confidence of his partners Luluk and Alven, who were to bring back Indonesia to level the score with Korea in the following match. But once again, the young Korean pair of Hwang Ji Man and Han Sang Hoon did better than expected and stole the first game from the mighty Indonesians. The latter couldn't possibly pull back their sleeves as they had none, nevertheless, they started out the second game in high spirits which made the difference in both remaining games, for a final 22/24 - 21/17 - 21/14 victory.

Everything then came to rely on either Park Sung Hwan or Simon Santoso, with the Korean higher ranked but with a defeat to remember in the only meeting they had in Indonesia last year. This may have boosted the game of Santoso who seemed very mature on court, taking his time and nailing the shuttles at the right moments. An even game but with a glimpse of preciseness more on the Indonesian side, who finally took the match - and the tie - for his country 21/18 - 21/16. The Indonesians will have an extra day of rest as they top their group and will head to Tokyo's quarter finals directly, while Korea now joins the lower part of the draw where Malaysia and Denmark await them. But first, they will take on Germany on Monday.

The Germans did quite well against China the same morning, especially Marcel Reuter, the unknown German player who was one of the heroes of the night - for his compatriots at least, when he took one game from Chen Jin of China, in the third single. He eventually lost the overall match, but it seems as if the Chinese shuttlers are still in an adjusting mode as Lin Dan and Bao Chunlai also struggled in the first game against Joppien and Spitko respectively. But the title holders got away with a 5/0 sweep and enter the quarter final as well as Malaysia - easy winners of England - and Denmark.

The European champions had to work hard to top their group against the Japanese fighting boys. Joo Bong had cleverly fielded a pair who had beaten the untouchable Eriksen and Lundgaard back in the Denmark Open. Ikeda and Sakamoto were close to pulling the same bad trick again and pushed the Danes to three tight games. Same with Paaske and Rasmussen who were making their big comeback - they also had to play a rubber game against Nakao and Kawaguchi. The Danes did win 5/0 in the overall tie, but apart from Peter Gade against Shoji Sato, all matches were rather tight, showing what a great progress Japan has made. Denmark will move on to the next stage, with another day of rest to watch movies and eat sushi before heading to Tokyo on 2nd May.