Taufik, Sony lead RI onward at worlds<\/p>\n
Agencies, Anaheim, California<\/p>\n
Men's singles players Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro
\nspearheaded a superb day for Indonesia at the World Badminton
\nChampionships on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Athens Olympic gold medalist Taufik took a comfortable 15-5,
\n15-6 victory over the Netherlands' Eric Pang to reach the third
\nround.<\/p>\n
Unseeded Sony, still recovering from a foot injury last year,
\nupset 12th seeded Christian Kaldau of Denmark 9-15, 15-9, 15-4.<\/p>\n
Sixth seeded Taufik should face little trouble in reaching the
\nquarterfinals. He has never lost a game in his three matches
\nagainst Thailand's 11th seeded Boonsak Ponsana, with their most
\nrecent encounter the semifinal in Athens last year.<\/p>\n
Sony has a tougher task, taking on world number three Peter
\nGade. However, the Indonesian holds a 2-1 record against the
\nDane, including wins at the 2004 Thomas Cup, the last time they
\nmet, and 2003 worlds.<\/p>\n
All three men's doubles pairs also came through easily. Second
\nseeded Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto, the 1997 world
\nchampions, beat Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave of India 15-11,
\n15-11 in their second round encounter.<\/p>\n
Fourth seeded Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto thrashed
\nTadashi Ohtsuka and Keita Masuda of Japan 15-3 15-6, while
\nveteran 10th seeds Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian defeated Korea's
\nHwang Ji Man and Han Sang Hoon 15-8, 15-10.<\/p>\n
Tony Gunawan, one half with Halim Haryanto of the last
\nIndonesians win a world title in 2001, also advanced in the men's
\ndoubles, but this time playing for the United States with Howard
\nBach.<\/p>\n
The mixed doubles pairing of Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir
\nkept Indonesia's perfect recrod by outclassing Marko Kroflic and
\nMateja Fink of Slovenia 15-1, 15-0.<\/p>\n
In other matches, world number one men's singles player Lin
\nDan and his female counterpart Zhang Ning both maintained their
\nblistering form by opening with dominating second-round
\nvictories.<\/p>\n
Top seed Lin, who is bidding for his first world championship
\ntitle, overpowered Kennevic Asuncion 15-1, 15-3. The 21-year-old
\nLin put on a punishing display of power badminton, needing just
\n20 minutes to win.<\/p>\n
Reigning world and Olympic champ Zhang looked equally
\nimpressive in her first women's singles match as she crushed
\nTaiwan's Huang Chia-Hsin 11-6, 11-2. Both top seeds received byes
\nthrough the first round.<\/p>\n
Lin next plays Shoji Sato of Japan, who beat Sweden's Rasmus
\nWengberg 15-17, 15-7, 15-3.<\/p>\n
Sato said he would prepare for the third-round match by
\nwatching video footage of Lin's win over Asuncion.<\/p>\n
\"I have not beaten Lin Dan but I will try my best,\" Sato told
\nAgence France-Presse.<\/p>\n
On a day when all the men's top seeds were in action, number
\ntwo seed Kenneth Jonassen advanced by crushing Singapore's
\nKendrick Lee Yen Hui 15-2, 15-2.<\/p>\n
Other seeds to reach the third round on Wednesday included
\nfourth seed Bao Chunlai, No 7 Chen Hong of China, ninth seeded Ng
\nWei of Hong Kong, Gade and fifth seed Chong Wei Lee of Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Reigning Olympic and world champion Zhang was never in trouble
\nagainst Taiwan's Huang in their 20-minute women's singles match.<\/p>\n
\"The venue is windier than I expected, so I just tried to have
\nbetter control of the shuttlecock,\" said Zhang, who is seeking to
\nbecome the fifth world champion from China in the past 10 years.<\/p>\n
Zhang's main rival Xie Xingfang beat Larisa Griga 13-12, 11-2.<\/p>\n
Indonesian-born Dutchwoman Mia Audina Tjiptawan dispatched
\nMaja Kersnik 11-0, 11-2. She has spent just 27 minutes on court
\nin her first two victories.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/taufik-sony-lead-ri-onward-at-worlds-1447893297",
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