Danish misfortune may be RI's lucky break
Danish misfortune may be RI's lucky break
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Although he got the semifinal matchup that he wanted against Denmark, Indonesia's Sudirman Cup team captain Christian Hadinata refused on Friday to talk up his players' chances.
Before leaving for Beijing for the mixed team championship, Christian had said he would prefer to meet the Danes because the his women's players would have a better chance of winning their matches.
Denmark, bidding to become the first European country to win the cup, overcame defending champions South Korea 3-2 in the final group A match on Thursday.
Indonesia, with several of its top players given a day off before Saturday's semifinals, lost 0-5 to the hosts in group B.
With Indonesia's players expected to be evenly matched with the Danes in the men's singles -- including the tempting possibility of a Taufik Hidayat-Peter Gade duel -- men's doubles and mixed doubles, much will hinge on the outcome of the women's singles and women's doubles.
Indonesia's women's chances received a boost on Thursday thanks to Danish misfortune. Tine Rasmussen, the number one Danish women's singles player and world ranked 11, fell over and suffered Achilles damage in her match against Korea's Seon Yoon hee.
Christian was guarded when asked to make a prediction on Friday, saying Europe's strongest team cannot be considered a pushover even without Rasmussen, who is expected to take several months to recover.
"The fact that Denmark beat Korea is outstanding, especially that their men's doubles pair (Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen) could defeat the Olympic champions (Kim Dong Moon and Ha Tae Kwon)," Christian said by phone from Beijing.
"They will be tough opponents. It's still 50-50."
Denmark will field rookie Camilla Sorensen, who is ranked 70th in the world, higher than Indonesia's second singles player Fransisca Ratnasari Haris (86) but below 51st-ranked Adrianti Firdasari.
Although Sorensen, 19, is a year older than the two Indonesians, she has mostly played small European tournaments.
"We have no choice but to play her," Danish coach Steen Pedersen told The Associated Press. "It will be a tough debut for her but she will have to learn from it."
Christian said Sorensen, despite her inexperience in major matchplay, might still present a problem for his players. "For the European players, the experience is generally about the same, they're technically good and have self-confidence."
A decision on the Indonesian team lineup will be made on Saturday following consultation with other coaches.
Heavily favored China will be looking to avenge its defeat to the Koreans in the final in Eindhoven two years ago when they play in the evening match on Saturday.
China's head coach Li Yongbo said he was confident his team could continue to produce the goods following 5-0 sweeps of round-robin group stage.
"I hope to win all the matches comfortably but we should be ready for future tough matches in which we may lose games first," he was reported as saying by AP.
"I will ask my players to make sure that they are mentally prepared to fight back from a losing position. I cannot envisage us winning with a 5-0 scoreline like before."