Favorites win in Surabaya beach volleyball
Favorites win in Surabaya beach volleyball
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post/Surabaya
Ni Putu Timy and Devota Rahawarin opened their bid for a hat trick of titles with an easy win in the Surabaya stop of the LA Menthol Indonesian Open beach volleyball championship here on Friday.
The women's national team players, who won the previous two legs in Yogyakarta and Semarang, triumphed 21-19, 21-10 over Feni Miawati and Dewi Wulandari at Surabaya Plaza's east parking lot.
The pairs they defeated in the previous finals also won.
Engel Bertha Kaize and Ninik Nuraida of Jakarta, who lost in Yogyakarta in June, came back from a game down to beat Heni Deliana and Nelly Fangidai of West Nusa Tenggara 19-21, 21-17, 15-8.
G. Kasenee and T. Arawan of Thailand, runners-up in Semarang earlier this month, also pulled off a comeback victory over Ike Prasetyowati and Iim Mukadimah, the other national team members, 21-12, 18-21, 15-8.
Head coach Slamet Mulyanto put the latter's defeat down to their newness as a team after being paired three months ago.
"They have already improved their game. It's just that they are still lacking teamwork out there," Slamet said, pointing out they led 7-5 in the deciding set.
"They went through the qualifying round. They were just unlucky that they were up against the Thai pair, the finalists in the second leg. The fact that they could force the Thais to play three games signifies their improved play ..."
A total of 30 women's pairs and 27 men's pairs are competing, with foreign teams from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The teams were scheduled to play two matches on Friday. Provided they could win their second match in the evening, Ike and Iim, along with other first-match losers, could still hope for further run into the next stages.
In the men's division, Indonesian national pairs faced no serious trouble in their opening matches.
Andy Ardiansyah and Supriadi, winners of both series, were too strong for Agung S. and Chandra Kurniawan of East Java 21-10, 21- 10 while Agus Salim and Koko Prasetyo thrashed Eko Yuli and Andi Suwandara 21-4, 21-16.
Andy and Supriadi were scheduled to take on Lee Kwan Tung and Yong Chooh Song of Malaysia in their second match later in the day. The Malaysian pair booked a win over Sutrisno and Feri Yudianto 21-16, 21-18.
Agus and Koko's next opponents were Parley Tupaz and Rhovyl R. Verayo of Philippines, the 21-19, 19-21, 15-13 winners over Kamarudin and Sudaryatmo of West Kalimantan.