Candra/Tony crash out in second round
Candra/Tony crash out in second round
By Primastuti Handayani
BANGKOK (JP): Indonesia's bid to win more gold medals in the
badminton competition at the 13th Asian Games suffered a blow on
Monday when the men's doubles favorites of Candra Wijaya and Tony
Gunawan bowed out of the event.
The pair's shock 11-15, 13-15 defeat to the South Korean duo
of Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung left hopes of a medal pinned on
Olympic gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky, who had no
trouble in dispatching Cambodian minnows Chorvan Cheah and
Sokhang Krang 15-2, 15-2.
Indonesia's makeshift mixed doubles team of Budi Santoso and
Minarti Timur and women's singles specialist Cindana Hartono also
crashed out of their respective events.
Indonesia is still in contention for the men's singles crown,
with both Hendrawan and Taufik Hidayat advancing safely into the
quarterfinals. Mia Audina kept Indonesia's hopes of lifting the
women's singles gold medal alive with a 11-6, 11-9 win over Huang
Chia-Chi of Chinese Taipei.
The second seeded Hendrawan eliminated Ian-Gil Piencenaves of
the Philippines 15-9, 15-7 in 26 minutes. The Indonesian world
number five, who guided his country to gold in the team event on
Friday, will now meet Malaysia's rising star Roslin Hashim, who
beat Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 15-8, 11-15, 17-16 in a
grueling encounter.
As usual, Hendrawan was cautious about his chances in the
quarterfinals. "I have never played Roslin before. Hopefully I
will be able to play as well as I did in the team final," he
said.
Taufik defied relentless boos from the crowd to dispatch local
favorite Anuphap Theeraratsakul with a 15-4, 15-12 victory.
"I found it difficult to finish the match because he had such
strong support from the local fans. It affected my game a little
bit," the 17-year-old Taufik said.
There was a surprise in the men's singles when Malaysian
number one Yong Hock Kin, the reigning Indonesia Open champion,
crashed out 17-14, 15-5 to Tam Kai-Chuen of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Open champions Candra and Tony discovered that their
relatively new partnership still requires a few more stitches
when the aggressive Korean pair capitalized on loopholes in their
Indonesian rivals' defense.
The Koreans raced to 9-0 lead in the opening set before Candra
and Tony staged a brilliant comeback to level at 9-9. However, a
flurry of smashes and nifty touch play earned the Koreans the
set.
Smarting from the first-set loss, the Indonesians took the
initiative in the second and build up an apparently commanding 9-
2 lead. However, their lead and their composure crumbled and they
committed innumerable unnecessary mistakes which let the Koreans
back into the set.
Candra and Tony came close to forcing a decider when they took
a 12-9 lead, but the feisty Koreans charged back with a barrage
of nosedive smashes which barely gave the Indonesians time to
regroup.
"The match went against us," grumbled Tony.
Cindana blamed her 11-5, 11-9 loss to host shuttler Sujitra
Eakmongkolpaisarn on her failure to control the shuttlecock. "I
could not play the way I am used to. Her returns continually sent
me into deep trouble," she said.
It was Cindana's second straight loss to the Thai after their
first encounter at the Asian Championships played here in
September.