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."