RI makes short work of Swedes<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia found its stride on Wednesday, wasting little time
\nin disposing of Sweden in Beijing to reach the semifinals of the
\nSudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship.<\/p>\n
The team, bidding to win the cup for only the second time in
\nits 16-year history, triumphed by the same 4-1 score as its
\nfirst-round defeat of Hong Kong in Group B on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
This time, however, its first round nerves were not as
\nevident, with a more focused Indonesian team giving away few
\nchances to the outclassed Scandinavians.<\/p>\n
Next up, however, is the daunting prospect of meeting China in
\nthe last group match on Thursday. The host squad, who thrashed
\nSweden without losing a game on Tuesday, was similarly ruthless
\nin its drubbing of Hong Kong on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The two teams from each group advance to the winner-vs-runner
\nup crossover semis.<\/p>\n
Sudirman Cup team manager Christian Hadinata was pleased with
\nthe victory but said his players had yet to reach their optimal
\nperformance.<\/p>\n
\"Our opponents were below those of last night, and I think our
\nperformance is still not as good as we want,\" he told The Jakarta
\nPost by phone from Beijing.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged the difficulty in facing China, because \"its
\nhard to find a weakness, the Chinese are strong on all levels ...
\nbut when you face a tougher opponent, it forces you to play to a
\nhigher level\".<\/p>\n
For the second day in a row, Indonesia's campaign was led by
\nNova Widianto and Liliana Natsir in the mixed doubles. The 2005
\nAll England semifinalists were given a scare in the first game,
\nfalling behind 1-11 and 8-13 before clawing their way back to
\nbeat Fredrik Bergstrom\/Johanna Persson 15-13, 15-6.<\/p>\n
Taufik Hidayat, in contrast to his unimpressive defeat of Ng
\nWei on Tuesday, had too much weaponry for Hugi Heimirsson, who
\nwas outclassed 15-1, 15-7 .<\/p>\n
As with the Hong Kong tie, Indonesia surrendered its only
\nmatch in the women's singles. Adrianti Firdasari, replacing
\nFransisca Ratnasari, fought hard against Elin Bergblom, taking
\nthe middle game but running out of steam in the last few points
\nin a 7-11, 11-6, 11-13 loss.<\/p>\n
Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto then took the court to put
\nthe tie beyond Sweden's reach, romping past Henrik
\nAndersson\/Joakim Hansson 15-3, 15-7 in 32 minutes.<\/p>\n
Jo Novita and Lita Nurlita were last up for the meaningless
\nfifth match against Bergblom and Persson, edging the Swedes 15-
\n13, 15-12.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon matches in group A, defending champions South
\nKorea secured a semifinal berth with an easy 5-0 win over
\nEngland, while Denmark, who have never won the championship, saw
\noff Thailand 4-1 to bag their spot in the last four.<\/p>\n
Christian said it was hard to pick a winner between evenly
\nmatched Denmark and Korea, who will also meet on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"The Korean women's singles is better, and so is the women's
\ndoubles, but the three others are about the same. I think the
\nKoreans will just have the edge.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ri-makes-short-work-of-swedes-1447893297",
"image": ""
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