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.