Easy does it for RI men in Thomas
Easy does it for RI men in Thomas
By Primastuti Handayani
KUALA LUMPUR (JP): Indonesia kept mum on Wednesday about its lineups for the Thomas and Uber cups, with opening matches in badminton's foremost team events set for the Putra Indoor Stadium on Thursday.
The men are expected to face few problems against Sweden in the Thomas Cup, but Indonesia's women, without longtime team mainstay Susi Susanti, will be in for a fight against Japan.
In the Thomas Cup, defending champion Indonesia will likely field Hendrawan in the first singles of the best-of-five match tie. He is expected to meet towering Thomas Johansson.
Despite leading 3-0 in head-to-head meetings with the Swede, the 29-year-old Indonesian refused to predict the outcome.
"Let's just see how everything goes tomorrow. I don't need to say anything, just see tomorrow's results."
World men's doubles number one Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan are expected to wield the advantages of power and youth against Par-Gunnar Jonsson and Peter Axelsson.
However, head coach Christian Hadinata warned his team against complacency.
"This is the opening match and usually they need time to adapt to the whole situation. Hopefully they won't take too long to adjust considering their experience."
China, another one of the five teams favored for the Thomas Cup, is likely to weather its opening test against England.
From a relatively young squad, China is expected to field Xia Xuanze and Ji Xinpeng in the opening singles matches while England's slim singles hopes rest with veteran Darren Hall.
The toughest encounter will probably occur when Yu Jinhao and Chen Qiqiu square off against Simon Archer and Nathan Robertson.
England's head coach Finn Traerup-Hansen admitted hopes of an English victory would hinge on upsets by his second and third singles players.
"If Chris Hunt and Julian Robertson can play well, they can put pressure on their opponents."
In the Uber Cup in which the Chinese women are odds-on favorites to retain the title, Indonesia meets Japan, whose players have better individual performances in Grand Prix events.
"Being the underdog gives us an advantage but the shuttlers must do their best in every match," Christian said. "The key is consistency. They must not make unforced errors during matches."
Japan's second singles Kanako Yonekura badly hurt her nose when she fell off a bicycle on Sunday evening, only hours before her flight to Kuala Lumpur.
"We will give our best but I think we have an equal chance with Indonesia," Japan's team manager Zhenia said.
Denmark is heavily favored on paper to beat Malaysia, but Danish first singles Camilla Martin said her team was not in top physical shape.
"We all are very exhausted after competing in the European Championships. We only had a week to rest. I have been playing in tournaments since October. It's really hard."
Malaysia's team manager Lim Teong Kiat kept his goals low, hoping his players would be able to take a game in each match and not disgrace themselves.
"We are in a very tough group. Our goal is only to narrow our scorelines. Should we lose, we must lose 2-3 instead of being whitewashed by Denmark.
"I hope our shuttlers, who are not the softy characters they used to be, can play long rallies in all matches."