Indonesia nipped by the Netherlands in Uber Cup<\/p>\n
Zakki P. Hakim and Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia's young and inexperienced women failed to overcome
\ntheir Dutch opponents, getting handed a 3-2 defeat in the last
\nGroup W match in the Uber Cup championship at the Bung Karno
\nIndoor Stadium here on Sunday.<\/p>\n
It was Indonesia's second straight defeat at the hands of the
\nDutch women. In 2002 in Guangzhou, it was the same result.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the host team was condemned to the bottom of their
\nthree-team group after the team suffered three losses in the
\nsingles matches which generally exposed the Indonesians' failure
\nto press the pace while in the lead.<\/p>\n
Silvi Antarini, Maria Kristin and Adrianti Fridasari, who have
\nan average age of 19, battled hard before bowing out respectively
\nto Yao Jie, Karina De Witt and Judith Meulendijks, whose average
\nage is 27.<\/p>\n
Playing as the first singles, Silvi duly stepped up her
\nperformance to reach a 7-2 lead in the first game, before Yao,
\nborn in China but a naturalized Dutch citizen, fought back to
\ncatch up.<\/p>\n
After spotting Silvi, whose world ranking is 66 compared to
\nYao's 10, a five-point lead, Yao closed out the first game with a
\n9-2 run.<\/p>\n
The second game appeared to go the other way with Yao racing
\nto a 5-0 lead and Silvi battling back to force a third game.<\/p>\n
Silvi looked to be cruising to a win with a formidable 7-1
\nlead, but Yao refused to sit back and clawed her way back to take
\nthe match.<\/p>\n
Maria was the first to reach eight points in each of the games
\nonly to squander the lead and allow De Witt to lift her game to
\nseal a 2-0 lead for Holland.<\/p>\n
The home fans' hopes were raised again when Firdasari, the
\nyoungest team member at 18, displayed an attacking game against
\nthe 26-year-old Meulendijks.<\/p>\n
Combining jump smashes with neatly placed drives, Firdasari
\ntook the first game 11-7. She was overwhelmed in the second game
\ntaking only two points.<\/p>\n
The third game, nearly had a dramatic comeback. Trailing 1-8,
\nthe young Indonesian capitalized on Meulendijks' poor spell of
\nform to make it 8-9.<\/p>\n
But Meulendijks, who is ranked 26th to Firdasari's 116th, held
\noff Firdasari's further lunge to seal a Dutch win with an
\nunassailable 3-0 team score.<\/p>\n
Indonesia reduced the margin with wins in the doubles.<\/p>\n
Lilyana Natsir and Gresya Polii earned the hosts' first point
\nby defeating De Witt and Brenda Beenhakker 15-5, 15-11, before Jo
\nNovita and Lita Nurlita contributed the second point with a 17-
\n14, 15-13 win over Lotte Bruil-Jonathans and Meulendijks.<\/p>\n
Meulendijks said that it was a difficult match, with the
\nraucous crowd behind the host team. She said that her team was
\ndetermined \"to fight like hell.\"<\/p>\n
Indonesian team manager Christian Hadinata said that his team
\nhad done its best.<\/p>\n
\"It's a pity that the singles failed to win us a point, but it
\nwas a fair experience for the girls,\" he said and hoped that the
\nexperience would help them improve for the next matches.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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