Elfira loses, China assured of girls' singles title at Milo

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Medan, North Sumatra

The Chinese squad has put on a high-flying performance in their first appearance at the US$11,000 Milo Junior Indonesia Open, with the Chinese already assured of the girls' singles title after the semifinal round here on Saturday.

Lu Lan, the Asian junior championships runner-up and top seed in the tournament, will battle fellow Chinese Wang Lin for the girls' singles title on Sunday.

Lu Lan shattered Indonesia's hopes for the title by overpowering Christina Maria Elfira 11-1, 11-2, while Wang Lin triumphed over Wang Yihan 11-4, 13-12 in their all-China semifinal match.

Arriving at the tournament buoyed by the senior Chinese teams' double victory at the Thomas and Uber cups in Jakarta in May, the 13-strong Chinese junior squad also stands a chance of winning the other three titles.

Gong Wei Jie, also a runner-up at the Asian junior championships and the top seed here, will face second-seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in the boys' singles final match on Sunday.

The two finalists breezed through the semifinals, with Gong dumping South Korean Lee Yong-dae 15-11, 15-5, and Tommy outclassing fellow Indonesian Achmad Rivai 15-7, 15-6.

The final should be an intriguing affair, with Tommy and Gong both having different styles of play. The Indonesian is likely to rely on his strength as a rallier and remain alert on defense in a bid to frustrate Gong, who features powerful smashes.

In the girls' doubles, China's Pan Pan and Feng Chen beat South Korea's Kim Mi-young and Lee Hyun-jin 15-3, 15-10 in the semifinals. The win sets up another China-Indonesia clash in the finals, with the home pair of Greysia Polii and Heni Budiman posting a 15-9, 15-3 semifinal victory over Ding Jiao and Zhao Yunlei of China. The final will also pit the two top seeds against each other.

In the boys' doubles, Shen Ye and He Hanbin, who brushed aside local hopes Putra Aditya and I Made Agung 15-10, 7-15, 15-4 in the semifinals, will take on top seeds Jung Jung-young and Lee Young-dae of South Korea, who booked their place in the final by defeating the Chinese pair of Li Rui and Cao Liu 15-8, 15-8.

The mixed doubles final will be an Indonesia-South Korea encounter, with the home pair of Muhammad Rizal and Greysia Polii, seeded second in the event, pitted against top seeds Lee Yong-dae and Kang Hae-won.

Rizal and Greysia defeated Koreans Jung Jung-young and Oh Seul-ki 15-8, 15-12 in the semifinals, while Lee and Kang stopped Indonesians Septano Bona and Meidiyani 15-11, 15-7.

Elfira's crushing defeat to Lu Lan in the semifinals of the girls' singles left her coach Agus Dwi Santoso upset by her apparent lack of nerve and mental toughness.

"Elfira failed to develop her game. She looked overawed by her more-fancied opponent and she was unable to conquer her nerves.

"Elfira did not seem to fight. Her shots were not accurate, which allowed Lu Lan to punish her with cunning returns," he said.

Rizal and Greysia, who managed to hold off a late challenge by their Korean opponents in the mixed doubles, said they were determined to triumph over the Korean pair they will face in the final.

Discussing game strategy, Rizal said they would look to score points with low crosses given that the Koreans had difficulty with such shots. "I hope we can win the title," he said.