National players tumble out at Milo junior badminton meet<\/p>\n
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya<\/p>\n
National team officials saw their pretournament boasts scuppered
\nas their proteges were sent packing at the US$10,000 Milo Junior
\nIndonesia Open badminton championships here on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Sigit Pamungkas and Asep Suharno, national team manager and
\ncoach, had not expected their players, who had undergone a
\ntraining stint of at least four months ahead of the event, to
\ncrash out when the competition had yet to reach the semifinal
\nstage.<\/p>\n
The national team fielded seven girls' singles players, all
\nseeded, but only Firdasari and Siti Mahiroh remain in contention
\nfor the title after Thursday's quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Firdasari and Siti were each forced to a third set before
\novercoming Francisca Ratnasari of Jaya Raya 11-2, 3-11, 11-7 and
\nHaleyna Aristianti of Mutiara Bandung 11-0, 4-11, 11-4 in their
\nmatches played at the Sudirman Sports Hall.<\/p>\n
To make things grimmer for the national squad, the two will
\nhave to beat each other in the semifinals on Friday.<\/p>\n
The outcome was a mockery of the elite players' appraisal that
\nthey, according to Sigit in his previous comment, were generally
\na class apart from the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
To add to their woes, top seed Dewi Tira Arisandi was among
\nthe major victims. She was crushed 11-0, 11-1 by defending
\nchampion Silvi Antarini, who is only the tournament's joint ninth
\nseed out of 16 this time around.<\/p>\n
Asep blamed the elite players' exit on their inability to cope
\nwith the psychological stress and nerves.<\/p>\n
\"Being players from the national training center, they have
\nendured the burden of having to win. They felt scared of losing,
\nscared of having their shuttlecock flop into the net or going
\nwide,\" Asep told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"They struggled hard to shrug the pressure off, apparently to
\nno avail. It all came down to nontechnical matters, as I saw from
\ntheir matches they conceded points mostly due to their unforced
\nerrors, not because of an offensive from their opponents.\"<\/p>\n
On court, Dewi had the pressure not only of having high status
\nbut also of having to unsettle her jinx against Jaya Raya member
\nSilvi, who had beaten her in 16 of their previous 17 meetings.<\/p>\n
\"I was nervous, my power deserted me,\" Dewi said after the
\nmatch, looking dejected.<\/p>\n
Fellow trainee Maria Elfira went down to Holli of Suryanaga
\nSurabaya 11-6, 11-3, while the other three -- Richasari, Fitria
\nFirdaus and Maria Kristin -- had already crashed out in the third
\nround .<\/p>\n
Holli will face Silvi in the other semifinal match on Friday.<\/p>\n
The only national contender, Holvy De Pauw, defeated left-
\nhander Leonard of Jarum Kudus 15-7, 15-7, while the two pairs all
\ncruised to the top-four stage, Joko Riyadi\/Hendra and Markis
\nKido\/Rian Sukmawan.<\/p>\n
In the girls' doubles, the national team had five pairs but
\nonly Devi Sukma\/Rani Mundiasti and Liliyana\/Nathalia survived to
\nthe semifinals. In the mixed doubles, Hendra S.\/Devi Sukma and
\nMarkis Kido\/Lilyana opened up the possibility of their playing in
\nthe final after they managed to reach the semifinals.<\/p>",
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